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Therapeutic In Vivo Protein Expression Using Adoptive Cell Transfer

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is a promising cancer therapy that involves the isolation of lymphocytes from a donor, subsequent in vitro modification, and infusion into a patient. My research aims to specifically modify tumor infiltrating T cells to express various therapeutic proteins such as antibodies, cytokines, and targeting molecules. These modifications are essential to overcoming the tolerizing tumor microenvironment and eliciting a strong immune response from the T cells. Additionally, the therapeutic index of many drugs can be improved by local delivery at the tumor site. Using tumor-targeting T cells as delivery vehicles for drugs could mitigate the often severe side effects associated with many treatments. By engineering more effective T cells, we hope to make better therapies available for patients with cancer.