Researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology have developed a powerful new platform that can identify and deeply profile antigen-specific CD4+ T cells at unprecedented scale and resolution. Published in Nature Communications, the work could help accelerate vaccine design, improve immune monitoring, and advance next-generation cancer immunotherapies.
ISB researchers reveal a darker side of targeted therapy: the same oncogene inhibition that shuts down cancer growth program can also ignite a stress-driven identity switch — revealing an early escape route that may shape the future of cancer treatment
ISB President Dr. Jim Heath talks with Nobel laureate and Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center Dr. Jim Allison and Apricity Health CEO Dr. Lynda Chin. Drs. Heath, Allison and Chin discuss disparities in cancer care and ways to bring state-of-the-art care from big cities and major academic centers to rural and underserved areas.
The NCI awarded ISB a 5-year, $13 million grant to lead a comprehensive cancer center and study sequential combinations of targeted inhibitors and immunotherapies. The program is designed to determine if the treatments yield greater patient benefit when administered in sequence rather than as monotherapies or as simultaneously administered combinations.
To improve the efficacy of neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade against glioblastoma, researchers are looking for vulnerabilities in surgically removed tissues – a difficulty due to the vast differences within the tumor and between patients. To address this, ISB researchers and their collaborators developed a new way to study tumors.