University of Illinois Cancer Center members and other University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) researchers are co-authors of work featured in the journal Nature Communications. Racers on a relay team depend on one another to ferry the baton across the finish line. With this concept in mind, the researchers designed a top-of-the-line relay process entirely in the body’s immune system to challenge the ultimate opponent: cancer.
The researchers’ immuno-relay design presents a more efficient, longer-term strategy to eradicate tumors and prevent recurrence.
“This technology can open up opportunities for treating tumors that are unresponsive to therapy — like glioblastoma in the brain — either alone or in combination with existing immunotherapies,” said lead investigator Zongmin Zhao, PhD, part of the Cancer Center Translational Oncology Research Program and Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Retzky College of Pharmacy at UIC.
The study’s first author, Chih-Jia (Bess) Chao, a doctoral candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences, says the next steps for the technology include exploring how the new method can help people.
Read more about the technology in UIC Today, where you can also listen to an audio summary and find a full listing of co-authors.