Research

Personal Neoantigen Vaccines Induce Persistent Memory T cell Responses and Epitope Spreading in Patients with Melanoma

Personal neoantigen vaccines have been envisioned as an effective approach to induce, amplify, and diversify antitumor T cell responses. In the results of a new study co-led by Dana-Farber's Patrick Ott, MD, PhD, and Catherine Wu, MD, and published in Nature Medicine, the clinical outcome and immune responses of eight patients with high-risk melanoma were re-assessed four years after being treated with NeoVax, a long-peptide vaccine targeting up to 20 personal neoantigens per patient. Assessment of the patients' T cells indicates that the immune response kindled by the vaccine remains robust and effective ... 

Integrin αvβ6–TGFβ–SOX4 Pathway Drives Immune Evasion in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

A recent study in Cancer Cell reveals an important resistance mechanism to T cell-mediated cytotoxicity for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) cells through the identification and mechanistic study of the transcription factor SOX4. First author Argis Bagati, PhD, and senior author Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber focused on the transcription factor SOX4 as it is associated with cancer cell invasion, wherein high expression of SOX4 is associated with a poor prognosis in many human cancers, in particular TNBC ... Study results suggest that further research in the targeting of the integrin αvβ6-TGFβ-SOX4 pathway will provide therapeutic opportunities for TNBC and other highly aggressive human cancers of epithelial origin ... 

Reversible ON- and OFF-Switch Chimeric Antigen Receptors Controlled by Lenalidomide

A recent study from Science Translational Medicine looks into improving the regulation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell treatment ... Researchers from Dana-Farber's Dr. Benjamin Ebert's lab worked to develop a switch-based system for activating and inactivating these cells using the clinically approved drug lenalidomide, which mediates the proteasomal degradation of several target proteins. T cells with an OFF switch were deactivated using lenalidomide, whereas those with an ON switch required both lenalidomide and a target antigen for activation of the split CAR, allowing control over the timing of T cell activation ... 

Coming Soon: Our Quarterly Newsletter

Stay current with Dana-Farber technology news, transactions, patents, publications, events, and more.

• Subscribe now