Samuel Lucas
BME PhD Proposal Presentation

Date: 2023-11-07
Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Location / Meeting Link: EBB CHOA Seminar Room / https://gatech.zoom.us/j/95230761012 

Committee Members:
Brandon Dixon; Edward Botchwey; Haydn Kissick; M.G. Finn; Susan Thomas (advisor)


Title: Understanding and engineering T-cell response to lymph node-targeted immunotherapy

Abstract:
The advent of T-cell-targeted cancer immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) monoclonal antibodies has transformed the clinical management of cancer, with an increasing fraction of cancer patients eligible for treatment. Unfortunately, persistent issues including toxicity concerns and responses being restricted to a subset of treated patients prevent more widespread usage of these therapies. Recent research has highlighted the role of secondary lymphoid organs such as lymph nodes (LNs) in mediating the T-cell response to ICB. Tumor draining lymph nodes (TdLNs) are a particularly interesting tissue in this context because they facilitate the comingling of T-cells, antigen presenting cells (APCs), and tumor antigen, as well as maintaining a pool of immunotherapy-responsive stem-like CD8+ T-cells. While previous research has pointed to the importance of the TdLN in the response to ICB treatment, many of the specific aspects of how the TdLN dynamically mediates the anti-tumor immune response in the context of immunotherapy remain unclear. The overall objective of this project is to use engineered biomaterials and in situ cell tracking approaches to investigate the dynamics of T-cell response to TdLN-targeted immunotherapy. My central hypothesis is that targeting the TdLN with immunotherapies including ICB monotherapy, adjuvant/ICB combination therapy and T-cell engagers will result in changes in T-cell mobilization and migration with consequent changes in anti-tumor activity.