Institute for Synthetic Biology members Jason Lohmueller and Alex Deiters at the University of Pittsburgh received a new R21 award from the National Cancer Institute: Cyclic Peptides as Adaptors for Universal CARs.
Cyclic peptides are an emerging modality for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. The funded project aims to combine the unique aspects of this reagent class with one the main Synthetic Biology success stories: adoptive cell therapy. By capitalizing on universal CAR T cell strategies recently developed by the Lohmueller and Deiters labs, the proposed approach addresses several shortcomings of traditional CAR T cell therapeutics and is expected to improve outcomes for cancer patients.