FAU own research funding: EFI / IZKF / EAM ...
Start date : 01.10.2022
Due to the high variability of tumor entities with respect to cell type, microenvironment, primary tumor vs. metastases, etc., it is important to make available the broadest possible repertoire of potential therapeutic options. In the context of immunotherapy, cytotoxic effector cells which upon genetic modification express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have proven to be promising tools. CARs of advanced generations typically carry the signaling domain of the T-cell receptor together with a costimulatory moiety. The most commonly used effector cells are cytotoxic T-cells. Recently, also Natural killer (NK) cells have been used and very few projects utilized myeloid cells as effector cells.
This project aims to expand the repertoire of anti-tumor effectors investigated so far, in particular with cells of the innate immune system, namely NK cells and monocytes/ macrophages as well the repertoire of effector domains. Specifically, in this project the expressability of a panel of novel CARs on human NK cells and monocytes will be tested to select promising candidates for further functional characterization.