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Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have so far shown limited efficacy on brain and solid tumors. UCSF investigators have developed a method of manufacturing recombinant immune cells by pre-treating them with a combination of small molecules to increase the number of CAR T cells in the tumor microenvironment and improve the survival of animal models bearing glioma in the brain relative to CAR T cells that have not received the pre-treatment. These results may be applicable to other solid tumors.

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Scientists at UCSF and the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy have developed methods for characterizing dendritic cells as well as methods for identifying a dendritic cell as either an inflammatory or a tolerogenic dendritic cell. Their results provide important insights into previously obscured metabolic heterogeneity impacting immune profiles of immunogenic and tolerogenic dendritic cells (DC).

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Natural Killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes with the ability to lyse tumor cells. One limitation of NK cells when encountering tumor cells is that they can’t control their own proliferation and expansion to increase their numbers at the tumor site. Current approaches to increase NK cell numbers and stimulate NK-cell anti-cancer functions include systemic administration of recombinant cytokines (IL-15, IL-2, or IL-12) that exhibit systemic or local toxicity or constitutive expression of IL-15 in transduced NK cells. Researchers at UCSF have engineered NK cells with a chimeric cytokine receptor (CCR) that provides autocrine signaling through the secretion of IFNγ, which subsequently enhances NK cell proliferation and function to support NK cell anti-cancer immune response specifically at the tumor site while avoiding recombinant cytokine- related toxicity. 

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In cancer care, specific characteristics of T cells can be used to measure a patient’s response to immunotherapy. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing coupled with TCR sequencing, scientists at UCSF and Harvard detected CD8+ T cell clones shared between blood and tumor in mice and melanoma patients, characterized these matching clones in blood and tumor, and identified potential biomarkers for their isolation in the blood. Their method reveals specific protein signatures (biomarkers) on the surface of T cells that can be therapeutically targeted to treat melanoma and other forms of cancer. It presents a very attractive alternative to obtaining invasive biopsy samples from the tumor, and can be done much more quickly.  

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UCSF scientists have discovered novel antibodies that can specifically and selectively recognize tumor-derived neoantigens. The antibodies can be used for IgG, BiTE or CAR-T-based targeted immunotherapy and small molecule-based directed immune targeting via combination therapy. This dual therapeutic approach has the potential to specifically recognize and treat KRAS (G12C) cancer cell populations with high specificity, significantly improve cancer treatment outcomes, and overcome risk of treatment resistance in patients.

This invention describes newly generated kinase inhibitors that demonstrate enhanced and attenuated action over their parent kinase inhibitors. These molecules can be used alone but, when combined with novel blocking molecules, the action of these chimeric kinases can be targeted for action in the central nervous system (CNS).

A novel monoclonal human antibody specific to the cell-surface exposed protein EphA2, which is over-expressed in many forms of cancer and is a validated therapeutic target.

To develop a novel imaging-based single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-Seq) platform that allows capturing of spatiotemporal information and cellular behavior of the sequenced cells within tissue.