AROUND CAMPUS AN ANTIBODY BUNDLE THAT TARGETS CANCER CELLS
Associate professor Susan Thomas leverages the power of the immune system to develop treatments.
LEVERAGING LYMPH NODES FOR IMMUNOTHERAPIES IMMUNOENGINEERING i s a n emerging research area that applies engineering principles for the study of the immune system. Its goal is to develop better therapies that leverage the immune system to treat disease. In Susan Thomas’ lab, immunoengineering—also known as cancer immunotherapy—is being applied to the lymphatic system to help the body fight cancer and stave off disease. “Rather than looking to chemo or radiation to fight cancer, we are now in the era of immunotherapy,” says Thomas, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. “Many new cancer immunotherapy drugs have been developed or are being developed, and they are incredibly powerful. However, they only work in a fraction of patients. Our goal is to make these powerful cancer-fighting drugs work effectively for more patients.” To do this, Thomas is exploring how to better deliver drugs to the lymphatic system—tissues where a large percentage of a patient’s immune cells reside. “It may sound counterintuitive, because for so long we have tried to specifically get drugs to cancer cells only,” Thomas says. “However, immunotherapies often work directly on immune cells. If we can get these drugs to immune
cells more effectively, those cells then have a better chance of fighting the cancer.” Thomas says she is often asked why an engineer would conduct cancer research. “Cancer is a big problem in society and engineers love to solve problems,” she explains. “Turns out, there are many engineering fundamentals that can be used to help understand cancer as a disease, as well as to develop better ways to diagnose or treat a patient.” As an example of the engineering Thomas uses in her work, she studies the mechanics of the immune system—how fluids, molecules and cells move in the body. Mechanics help her better understand how cancers progress, develop and metastasize, which helps optimize drug delivery for targeted therapies. “Harnessing the lymphatic system for immunotherapy really is a radical but practical and rational approach,” Thomas says. “It hasn’t been explored at all clinically. Almost every week I’m meeting with clinicians who are interested in these types of cancer therapies, but they have very little understanding of how to optimize their delivery. They can see the potential impact that engineering can have on the cancer immunotherapy field because they are hungry for new tools to use to help their patients.”
14 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 94 No.3 2018
ANTIBODIES ARE LARGE PROTEINS in the body that are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects like bacteria and viruses. A new type of immunotherapy looks to use the body’s own antibodies to target and neutralize cancer cells. Currently, antibodies themselves cannot get into a live cancer cell, but Julie Champion, associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is creating a bundle of antibodies that can get in. Imagine the antibody bundle as a key that unlocks the cancer cell. In Champion’s lab, she is engineering antibody protein design and assembly, combining six proteins with three therapeutic cancer-killing antibodies that can be sent directly to the cancer cell—and get inside. “Antibodies exist to fight cancer, we just need to get them into the cells,” Champion says. “If we can do that with the protein bundle, the antibodies can kill or inhibit cancer cells from growing. Also, the bundle can deliver any antibody therapy we want it to, so it will work for various treatment regimens.” The other benefit of an immunotherapy like Champion’s protein bundle is that it only targets cancer cells. Many cancer therapies, such as chemo and radiation, kill all the body’s cells, even the healthy ones, leaving the patient exposed to other illnesses and with a weakened immune system. The protein bundle can carry the cancer-fighting antibody specifically to cancer cells, only destroying them. Champion is also working on a cancer vaccine. It’s not given to prevent cancer—rather, it’s used in existing cancer patients to help their bodies better recognize the disease. Often, when a patient isn’t fighting off the cancer like it should, it’s because the body doesn’t recognize it as foreign: The cancer has tricked the immune system into thinking it belongs,