A team of researchers including several MSI PIs has completed a Phase I trial of a gene-editing method to fight late-stage gastrointestinal cancer. The researchers edited white cells, known as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, from the patients to remove a molecule that suppresses the cells’ ability to fight tumors. The cells were then infused back into the patients. Half of the patients’ cancers stabilized during treatment, an encouraging result that indicates that the treatment should be further studied.
A story about this research project appears in the Minnesota Daily: UMN researchers develop new treatment for late-state GI cancers, initial trials prove promising results. The paper can be read on the website of the journal The Lancet Oncology: Targeting the intracellular immune checkpoint CISH with CRISPR-Cas9-edited T cells in pattients with metastatic colorectal cancer: A first-in-human, single-centre phase 1 trial.
MSI PIs participating in this project include:
- Professor Emil Lou (Medicine)
- Associate Professor Emeritus Tim Starr (OB/GYN and Women’s Health)
- Associate Professor Thomas Murray (Biostatistics)
- Professor Jeffrey Miller (Medicine)
- Dr. Eric Jensen (Surgery)
- Dr. Jacob Ankeny (Surgery)
- Paolo Provenzano (Biomedical Engineering)
- Associate Professor Beau Webber (Pediatrics)
- Associate Professor Branden Moriarity (Pediatrics)