To evolve immune cells as more effective killing agents against refractive and difficult-to-access solid tumors, we are re-engineering the immune system both metabolically and functionally to overcome the tumor microenvironment's profound suppressive mechanisms. For instance, altered metabolism in the tumor microenvironment due to metablites such as adenosine severely impairs immune cell cytotoxicity. By rethinking how immune cells function, we are developing innovative tools to arm them with powerful molecular programs to fight cancer and provide sustained therapeutic benefit in vivo.

Our genetic constructs go beyond chimeric antigen receptors and are designed to engineer natural killer cells as multi-functional molecular machines with the ability to recognize tumors and reprogram their response to immunometabolic suppression.

We leverage cancer biology and genetic engineering to fuel the development of innovative next-generation reprogrammed immunotherapies that metabolically and functionally suppress the tumor microenvironment's inhibitory action on the immune system.