Cancer Immunotherapy Research Program

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT CANCER IMMUNOLOGY PROGRAM The Cancer Immunology (CI) Program of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University (Winship) conducts research that seeks to prevent and treat cancer by harnessing the immune system. The CI program was added as a new scientific program in 2019 to bring together the growing number of faculty conducting basic, clinical, and translational research in cancer immunology at Winship. The overall goal of the CI program is to conduct transformational research to reduce the cancer burden among patients and populations at risk for cancer. Cancer immunology research at Winship has already made seminal contributions to the development of immunotherapies for cancer and has helped to define fundamental principles that guide immunotherapy response. The overall scientific goals of the program are: (1) to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of anti-tumor immunity, and (2) to discover and test new immunologic approaches to treat or prevent cancer. Under the leadership of Madhav Dhodapkar, MBBS (leader), and Rafi Ahmed, PhD (co- leader), the CI Program includes 25 core members representing 11 different departments within the School of Medicine (SOM). This highly collaborative group of researchers has published a total of 293 cancer-relevant scientific articles during the current funding period. Of these, 49 (17%) were intra- and 127 (43%) were inter- programmatic collaborations, 197 (67%) involved a collaboration with another institution and 89 (30%) were published in journals with an impact factor > 10. As of December 31, 2021, CI members held $9.15 million in annual program direct costs, of which $6.4 million was peer-reviewed and $3.5 million (55%) was awarded from the NCI. Program members play leadership roles in several Winship team science programs including NCI-funded lung cancer SPORE and P01 awards and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) award in multiple myeloma, all newly awarded during the reporting period. Impactful CI scientific contributions include i) development of abatacept to prevent acute graft versus host disease, ultimately leading to FDA approval in 2021, ii) definition of antigen-specific B and T cells in tumor microenvironment of head/neck cancer with practice-changing immunotherapeutic implications, iii) identification of antigen- presenting-cell niches within tumors that may be key mechanism of immune escape, and iv) definition of the CD8 T cells that provide the proliferative burst after PD-1 immunotherapy. CI program leaders develop programmatic content, meetings, and retreats, and foster a rich and diverse research environment which enhances training for the next generation of cancer researchers and promotes career development of under- represented scholars. CI interacts closely with Winship Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) to address catchment area priorities and engage in bi-directional communication with community stakeholders. Built on Winship's enabling resources and infrastructure for innovation and team-science, including >$850,000 of pilot funding, CI is poised to make major contributions to the field of cancer immunology and immunotherapy.