In Australia’s oldest medical research institute, researchers work to cure an aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma. The last decade has transformed the field of cancer research; blood cancers that were once death sentences now have treatment options. But glioblastoma remains a deadly enigma.
“I realized there was hardly any research happening in brain cancer, and applying immunotherapy there was the bold and ambitious plan we set for ourselves,” said immunologist Misty Jenkins, an associate professor at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. In a new study published in Clinical & Translational Immunology, Jenkins and her team reported that a novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell eliminates human glioblastoma cells transplanted into the brains of mice.
“We genetically engineered a receptor to recognize our tumor target. In this case, we're targeting a protein that's exquisitely tumor specific. It's only found on tumor cells,” ...
