Improving immune system messages to fight cancer
Structure-based engineering of immune cytokine signaling
This research aims to create better immune-boosting treatments for cancer by carefully redesigning natural immune signals.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Stanford University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Stanford, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11112525 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Our immune system uses special messengers called cytokines to control how immune cells grow and fight disease. While these cytokines are powerful for fighting cancer, they can also cause unwanted side effects or affect healthy cells, making them difficult to use effectively as medicines. This project focuses on understanding the exact shapes of these cytokine messengers and then carefully changing their design. The goal is to make them more effective at targeting cancer cells while reducing harmful side effects, leading to more powerful and safer cancer immunotherapies.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Patients with various types of cancer who might benefit from improved immunotherapy approaches could eventually be candidates for treatments developed from this research.
Not a fit: Patients whose cancers do not respond to immunotherapy or those with conditions that prevent immune system modulation may not directly benefit from this specific approach.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to new, more effective, and less toxic immunotherapy drugs for various cancers.
How similar studies have performed: This is a renewal of a prior award, indicating ongoing progress in understanding cytokine structures, and the current work builds on that foundation to engineer new variants.
Where this research is happening
Stanford, United States
- Stanford University — Stanford, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Garcia, Kenan Christopher — Stanford University
- Study coordinator: Garcia, Kenan Christopher
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.