Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

The first and most effective protection against cancer is our immune system. Cancer cells have different characteristics from normal cells in the body such as over expression of a surface protein, so they are diagnosed and eliminated by immune system. However, most tumors show little evidence of immunological control, because cancer cells develop some ways to evade immune response, so they can start to make a tumor mass. Stimulating human immune system to detect and eradicate cancer cells is a promising technique. Scientists have focused on it for decades. Designing synthetic receptors on the surface of T-cells has shown successful results in some cases. One of the major drawbacks of this system is that these receptors are usually designed to attach the targets which are over expressed on cancer cells so they still can bind to the normal cells with lower expression and results in side effects on patients. The best way to overcome this problem is to build the receptor against a target which is presents only on cancer cells not the normal ones. Also, it should be able to control in order to avoid autoimmunity response. In this project we are using a protein from Plasmodium Falciparum parasite that very specifically detects a molecular change on the surface of cancer cells. This change is very unique to the cancer cells and does not happen on normal cells. We will use this protein to design a unique receptor on immune cells that only targets the tumor cells. More over, we designed a specific part in our receptor construct which is able to be controlled by adding the specific protein from Plasmodium Falciparum. Therefore, the immune system permanently produces the synthetic receptor, but its activity can be controlled at the appropriate time and dosage for the patient.