Personalized Cancer Vaccines

A dendritic cell vaccine targeting melanoma patients’ tumor-specific mutations can activate a broad range of cancer-fighting T cells.

head shot of blond woman wearing glasses
| 4 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
4:00
Share

Follicular dendritic cellWIKIMEDIA, ASZAKAL Most tumors express mutant proteins not made by healthy cells, and the range of these mutated proteins varies from patient to patient. Exploiting these individual variations, a team led by researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has created personalized dendritic cell vaccines using these mutated peptides, called neoantigens, which can activate a diverse range of melanoma patients’ cytotoxic T-cells in vivo.

A study assessing the immunologic effects of the vaccines—not their therapeutic benefit—is published today (April 2) in Science.

The work is an early proof of principle that immunization against these neoantigens results in patient immune responses, Nina Bhardwaj, director of immunotherapy at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City who was not involved in the work, wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist.

“Scientifically and immunologically, this was a tour de force as the first example of a personalized vaccine strategy,” said Jeffrey Weber, a tumor immunologist at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, who also was not involved in the study.

In a 2013 study, coauthor Beatriz Carreno, a human immunologist in the oncology division at the Washington ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • head shot of blond woman wearing glasses

    Anna Azvolinsky

    Anna Azvolinsky is a freelance science writer based in New York City.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio