Glenna Foight
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Cancer immunotherapy can arm a patient's T cells, the immune system's cell killers, with engineered receptors that recognize tumors. These receptors include chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and T-cell receptors.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biomedical Engineering
Biochemistry
- Topics
T-cell exhaustion
T-cell dysfunction
CAR T cells
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Determine how complexes of bZIP-family transcription factors, proteins that switch genes on or off, regulate T-cell exhaustion, using engineered protein inhibitors that block specific factors.
- Increase T-cell resistance to dysfunction by systematically combining transcription factor boosts and engineered inhibitors, screening pooled libraries in lab models of tumor-induced exhaustion.
- Compare which transcription factor changes best counter different sources of T-cell dysfunction in mouse tumors, using single-cell RNA sequencing matched to each genetic change.
More about the research
This approach is promising, but it often fails against solid tumors. Stresses inside the tumor push T cells into a worn-out, dysfunctional state called exhaustion. Transcription factors are proteins that switch whole sets of genes on or off. Adjusting them is a powerful way to keep T cells functional. Some can be added to boost T-cell activity or keep cells long-lived and stem-like. Others drive exhaustion and can be removed. Because past studies used different models and reached conflicting results, it is unclear which changes help most or how to combine them.
Why it matters
T-cell therapies often fail in solid tumors because the engineered cells become exhausted. Finding the best transcription factor changes to build into therapeutic T cells could make these treatments work better against several cancer types. Engineered protein inhibitors could also give researchers a new tool for adjusting immune cell behavior in cell therapies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Akhavan
University of Kansas, KS·Biomedical Engineering
Develop nanocarriers, tiny drug-carrying particles, that can be loaded into CAR T cells, which are engineered tumor-targeting immune cells, to create a platform for delivering drugs into glioblastoma.
Mohamad Hamieh
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Test strategies to reduce ICANS, the neurotoxicity of CAR T-cell therapy, by targeting extracellular vesicles released by activated CAR T cells, using animal models that track blood-brain barrier integrity and antitumor activity.
Sidi Chen
Yale University, CT·Biomedical Engineering
Advance and validate MAJESTIC, a gene delivery system combining mRNA, AAV vectors and the Sleeping Beauty transposon, testing efficient and stable cargo delivery with minimal toxicity across diverse immune cell types.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
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