Benjamin Vincent
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
A stem cell transplant from a donor can cure acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive blood cancer. However, the cancer often returns, and the treatment carries serious side effects.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
acute myeloid leukemia
allogeneic stem cell transplantation
alloSCT
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Evaluate how large structural DNA variants contribute immunogenic minor histocompatibility antigens that donor T cells target after HLA-matched stem cell transplantation for AML.
- Map the MHC class I-displayed alloantigen landscape of AML using immunopeptidomics and T cell response assays, and relate responses to relapse-free survival.
- Test whether T cell responses covering more tumor subclones predict better relapse-free survival, using long-read single-cell sequencing to measure antigen expression across subclones.
- Adapt antigen discovery methods to find alloantigens targeted by CD8+ T cells in haploidentical (half-matched) stem cell transplantation.
- Combine mHA profiles with natural killer cell KIR genetics from the DISCOVeRY-BMT dataset, using statistical and deep learning models to predict transplant outcomes.
More about the research
The cure is thought to come from the donor's T cells, immune cells that recognize and kill targets. They attack the patient's leukemia cells by spotting minor histocompatibility antigens (mHAs): small protein fragments that differ between donor and patient because of inherited genetic differences. This is called the graft-versus-leukemia effect. Knowing exactly which antigens donor T cells target, and why the response sometimes fails, could help prevent relapse.
Why it matters
Patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia who receive donor stem cell transplants often relapse. Identifying which tumor and donor-recipient antigens donor T cells attack, and how leukemia resists them, could help select better donors, predict relapse risk, and point to targets for immune-based therapies that improve transplant outcomes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jaebok Choi
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether drug blockade of VLDLR, a receptor on T cells, prevents graft-versus-host disease while preserving the graft-versus-leukemia effect, in two independent mouse models of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.
John Wagner
University of Minnesota, MN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Establish the safety and maximum tolerated dose of donor CAR19 regulatory T cells, given with and without IL-2, in patients with relapsed or refractory CD19+ acute lymphocytic leukemia, measuring cell persistence and tumor killing.
Xuefang Cao
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether blood-forming stem and progenitor cells use the receptor CD27 to directly suppress donor T cells, using transplants into Rag1 knockout mice that lack CD27 and NK cells, in vivo and in vitro.
The school
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 523 research doctorates a year.
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