Ready-made dendritic cells that teach T cells to fight cancer
Programmable Off-the-Shelf Dendritic Cells as an Immunotherapy Discovery Platform
This project will develop off-the-shelf dendritic cells programmed to display tumor markers and help discover or train T cells to target cancers in patients.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | New York University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11169070 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers are building programmable dendritic cells — immune cells that show bits of tumor to T cells — pre-engineered to match many different HLA types. The cells would be used to find and validate tumor-specific antigens and the T cell receptors that recognize them, and could also act as a living vaccine to boost a patient’s own immune response. The team aims to overcome limitations caused by HLA differences between people and to scale production so these cells could be made broadly available. Early work will focus on lab and preclinical tests with plans to move toward patient-relevant validation.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates would be people with solid tumors who might benefit from T cell–based therapies or whose tumors express tumor-specific antigens that could be targeted.
Not a fit: Patients whose cancers lack identifiable tumor-specific antigens or who are not eligible for cell-therapy approaches may not benefit from this work.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could expand the number of patients who can receive T cell–based therapies and enable new personalized cancer vaccines.
How similar studies have performed: Cell therapies like CAR-T have been very successful for some blood cancers, but using programmable dendritic cells to broaden TCR targets is a novel approach that is largely untested in patients.
Where this research is happening
New York, United States
- New York University — New York, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Truong, David Minh — New York University
- Study coordinator: Truong, David Minh
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.