CIRM funds City of Hope to develop T cell-based therapy

The grant will support the development of a T cell-based immunotherapy that re-directs patient’s immune response against glioma stem cells for the treatment of cancer.

In the research, scientists are genetically engineering a central memory T cell which has the potential to establish a persistent, lifelong immunity to help prevent brain tumors from recurring.

City of Hope associate research professor and co-principal investigator for the research Christine Brown said because cancer stem cells are heterogeneous, the proposed therapy will target multiple antigens to cast as wide a net as possible over the malignant stem cell population.

City of Hope Brain Tumor Program director Behnam Badie said the CIRM grant will help to build a targeted T cell therapy against glioma that can offer lasting protection, determine the best way to deliver the treatment, establish an efficient process to manufacture these T cells for treatment, and get approval for a human clinical trial.

Previously, researchers at City of Hope have identified several proteins as potential prime targets for the development of cancer immunotherapies, such as interleukin 13 receptor alpha 2, and CD19, both of which are in phase I clinical trials.