Ludwig Lausanne team devises a method to selectively grow tumor-targeting T cells for cancer therapy
A Ludwig Cancer Research study has devised a highly efficient method to generate large numbers of immune cells specifically engineered to recognize neoantigens—small fragments of randomly mutated proteins that are typically unique to a patient’s cancer—and destroy the tumors that express them.
Developed by a team of Ludwig Lausanne researchers led by investigator Alexandre Harari and George Coukos, Director of the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the method, named NeoScreen, significantly improves the identification of a patient’s neoantigens and consequently holds considerable promise for the development of personalized immunotherapies for cancer. A paper describing NeoScreen and illustrating its utility and efficacy in a preclinical study appears in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology.