Grant: Project Grant

T cells are specialized immune cells that develop in the thymus and are involved in fighting infections and providing protection from diseases, including cancer. T cell therapies have revolutionized cancer treatment, yet these treatments have limited benefit for patients undergoing radio- or chemotherapy as T cell regeneration in these instances is delayed or absent, because of poor thymic activity. Our laboratory has developed a method to mimic thymic function allowing for the development of early (progenitor) T cells in culture, which have the capacity to engraft the thymus and produce mature functional T cells upon transplantation. These progenitor T cells show remarkable promise for clinical application, allowing for safe and accelerated T cell recovery in patients receiving cancer treatments. Additionally, these progenitor T cell can be edited to include cancer specific targets, thereby providing a method for anti-tumour activity. Here, we propose a proof-of-concept preclinical study to build upon our previous results to advance an induced pluripotent stem cell to progenitor T cell differentiation platform that will yield cells capable of accelerating immune regeneration following cancer therapy and targeting cancer cells themselves.