Grant: Project Grant

A major paradigm shift is taking place in the field of cancer treatment. This type of treatment is called immunotherapy where it is now possible to harness the immune system to fight cancer. One type of immunotherapy called chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy involves engineering natural immune cells, known as T cells, to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. Several recent clinical trials have reported exciting successes, whereby certain types of hard to treat and late-stage white blood cell cancers such as leukemia, CAR-T therapy can lead to long-lasting tumor elimination several months after treatment. Despite the promise of CAR-T therapy, this treatment has only been successful in certain types of leukemias and not in the vast majority of other solid tumors like ovarian cancer. The major goal of this CIHR Project Grant is to define the barriers that limit the effectiveness of T cells that are produced for CAR-T treatments. Using our teams expertise, we will study the metabolic features of ovarian tumors and decipher ways in which tumor metabolism impacts the function of CAR-T cells. With this information, we will use sophisticated genetic-engineering technologies to produce highly effective CAR-T cells that can overcome the barriers that are typically found in ovarian tumors.