2017
October
What’s happening under the hood: The cellular kinetics of a CAR T cell therapy
October 25, 2017
Therapies in which T cells are engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) have proven to be incredibly effective against certain hematological malignancies. In recent months, two CAR T cell therapies have earned FDA approval, and it is likely this groundbreaking strategy will continue to expand. In an effort to understand the...
Form follows function: How dendritic cell distribution within lymph nodes affects T cell response
October 18, 2017
Form follows function, and the fascinating structural microanatomy and related immunological functioning of lymph nodes revealed by Gerner et al. in The Journal of Experimental Medicine highlight their importance for rational vaccine design. Dendritic cells (DCs) within the lymphatic tissues are the key initiators of adaptive immune responses during immunization or in the...
2017 AACR Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Conference
October 11, 2017
Last week, the ACIR team attended the AACR Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy conference in Boston, MA. This week’s extensive special feature covers select sessions from the conference. Opening Keynote and Special Lecture Levi Garraway from Eli Lilly and Company opened the conference with an overview of the cancer-immunity cycle and how it relates...
Combination central tolerance and peripheral checkpoint blockade unleashes antimelanoma immunity
October 4, 2017
Central tolerance is essential for protection against autoimmune reactions, but cancers being so similar to “self”, this protective mechanism sometimes limits the immune system’s ability to fight off cancerous cells. Autoimmune regulator (Aire) is a regulator of central tolerance that is expressed predominantly in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) in the thymus. The...
