Kevin Van Der Jeught
University of Miami, FL·Microbiology & Immunology
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. Survival has improved when the disease is caught early, but treatment success drops sharply once it spreads.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
colorectal cancer
cancer immunotherapy
immune checkpoint
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2031
What they work on
- Generate and characterize mouse, human and cross-reactive nanobodies against ST2, the IL-33 receptor, and measure their ability to bind and block ST2 as candidates for colorectal cancer imaging and therapy.
- Label non-blocking anti-ST2 nanobodies with technetium-99m and evaluate them as tracers for SPECT/CT imaging, using ex vivo tissue biodistribution and flow cytometry to confirm ST2 expression.
- Use the top nanobody tracers and PET imaging to monitor changes in the IL-33/ST2 pathway in the tumor microenvironment over time, after standard-of-care treatment, and during metastasis.
- Test the therapeutic potential of blocking anti-ST2 nanobodies delivered as engineered mRNA via endoscopy-guided intratumoral injection, measuring tumor growth control in preclinical animal models.
More about the research
Immune checkpoint drugs release the brakes on the immune system so it can attack tumors. Blocking the brake protein programmed death 1 has been a breakthrough, but it works mainly in patients whose tumors show microsatellite instability, a DNA-repair defect found in only a small minority of cases. Most patients need new checkpoint targets.
Why it matters
Patients with advanced colorectal cancer who do not respond to current checkpoint drugs need new options. Anti-ST2 nanobodies could provide both a non-invasive imaging tool for monitoring tumors and a candidate immunotherapy. The same approach could become a platform for imaging and targeting other immune checkpoints.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sana D Karam
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-L1 drugs act on PD-1-expressing regulatory T cells and their STAT3 signaling during radiation therapy, using genetically engineered mice and samples from HNSCC clinical trials.
Christopher LaRocca
University of Minnesota, MN·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify which viral fiber structure, the part that attaches the virus to a cell, and which promoter, the genetic switch driving replication, give the strongest and most selective infection of human colorectal cancer cells, using cancer cell lines and patient-derived tissue slices.
Theresa Torres Pizarro
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify the cell types in subepithelial ST2+ patches, cells that respond to the signaling molecule IL-33 and sit over colon polyps, in AOM/DSS-treated and Winnie mice, and test their function in tissue outside the body.
The school
University of Miami: 30 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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