Training and research

Cytokine support is an important and ever-present aspect of adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) but there is little evidence to define if and when cytokine help is required for optimal T cell efficacy. The complexity of generating and applying ex vivo manipulated T cells for cancer treatment has so far prevented systematic studies in this setting. In other words, cytokines might be required for T cell expansion, differentiation, in vivo efficacy, in vivo persistence or all of them. Such considerations will have a direct impact both on pre-existing therapies as well as on those still under development. There is no consensus as to which cytokines might lead to the best results. In addition, cytokines can also directly impact T cell recognition during ACT but may also play a more dismal role on T cell function when produced by tumour cells or their surroundings for T cell suppression. Importantly, these aspects have not been studied in the context of advanced cellular products where T cells have been extensively expanded and modified for cancer therapy. Such studies would have direct consequences on current protocols and the development of novel strategies. To that end, the overarching scientific objective of T-OP is to leverage cytokine support for adoptive T cell therapy of cancer. T-OP will aim at the following objectives:
1) optimize the production process for optimal outcome (ESR1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
2) define novel means of engineering for implementation of cytokine signalling (ESR5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10) and 3) define how to utilize or neutralize cytokines for enhanced cell therapy (ESR11, 12, 13, 14, 15).