Armored auto CAR-T programAllo-CAR-NK program

The main reasons for the tumor with no response to cancer immunotherapy are due to low infiltration of immune cells into solid tumors, and the intrinsically immunosuppressive microenvironment within the solid tumors. Endothelial cell, the primary building block of blood vessels, is a major component of the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, T cell migration needs interactions with vascular endothelial cells through many moleculars, such as selectin, integrin and leukocyte adhesion molecules under blood flow. While the tumor blood vessel significantly differ from the normal blood vessels in morphology, gene expression, and functionality. Therefore, the major goal of my research is to reveal the mechanisms of vascular morphogenesis and vascular abnormalities of glioblastoma, by which to develop new strategies to improve cancer immunotherapy. We demonstrated that normalization of the tumor vascular microenvironment improves T cells infiltration into the tumors and sensitizes GBM to CAR-T cell immunotherapy.

MicroRNAs are noncoding RNAs and regulate gene expression in a sequence-specific manner. Increasing evidence indicates microRNAs play a critical role in cancer, suggesting it may be a new and potent therapeutic target for cancer treatment. My research was focused on the functional characterization of microRNAs in ovarian and breast cancers, and evaluation the role of microRNAs in tumor suppression. My aim is to 1) identify the role of mir-30d in cancer cell proliferation, senescence, and apoptosis, and 2) investigate the mechanisms leading to let-7 downregulation in cancer.