Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Immunotherapy, a biological therapy that utilizes the immune system to fight disease, has emerged in the last few years as a major player in the field of oncology. The effect of immunotherapy is largely dependent on the action of white blood cells with powerful tumor-killing capabilities, called T cells. Novel approaches are currently being explored to enhance T cell function and improve responses to immunotherapy in hard-to-treat cancers. One such approach is the engineering of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells, wherein patient T cells are extracted, modified with a receptor that enables them to better recognize tumor cells, and then re-infused in large numbers. CAR-T cell therapy has demonstrated remarkable success in blood-based cancers, but in solid tumors, physical and functional barriers pose a unique challenge. In particular, rapidly growing tumor cells produce toxic metabolites and consume large amounts of glucose and oxygen, creating a hostile environment that inhibits immune cells. The goal of my research is to overcome this metabolic suppression and improve CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors. To achieve this goal I will use sophisticated gene-editing techniques to rewire metabolic pathways, thus producing supercharged CAR-T cells with enhanced metabolic and tumor-killing capabilities. Rigorous testing and optimization in the laboratory and in mouse models will enable me to develop a successful metabolic engineering pipeline with the potential to finally advance CAR-T cell therapy in solid cancers.