Project description
Reprogramming fibroblasts to boost cancer immunotherapy
Despite advances in immunotherapy, many lung cancer patients fail to respond to treatment due to resistance mechanisms. One promising discovery is the presence of antigen-presenting fibroblasts (apFibros) within tumours, which can activate cancer-fighting immune cells and create immune-supportive environments. These findings show that tumours can sustain T-cell responses independently of lymph nodes. However, apFibros are rare, and their molecular regulation remains poorly understood. In this context, the ERC-funded artFibro project seeks to unlock the therapeutic potential of apFibros by combining computational and laboratory research. By mapping fibroblast states and identifying key regulatory mechanisms, scientists aim to reprogramme fibroblasts to enhance immune responses, improving immunotherapy outcomes for lung cancer patients.
Objective
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. Immunotherapy improved survival rates, but efficacy is limited to selected patients. We recently discovered universal antigen presenting fibroblasts (apFibros) across human and murine lung tumors and showed that they directly stimulate cancer-specific CD4 T cells, creating immunological hot spots that support immune rejection. These studies achieved a breakthrough on the role of in situ cancer antigen presentation and proposed a novel model whereby tumors can sustain T cells independently of lymph nodes.
Preliminary data suggest that lung apFibros help overcome resistance to checkpoint inhibitors. For their immunotherapeutic exploitation of apFibros two bottlenecks must be overcome: low numbers and incomplete understanding of their configurations. We will integrate computational and laboratory experiments and work in parallel in human and mouse models to generate perturbation datasets across single-cell/cell systems, transcriptomics/epigenomics, spatial/temporal levels, and dissect the molecular landscape that regulates fibroblast states. Our ultimate goal is to unravel perturbations that can diverge cancer-associated fibroblasts to antigen presenting states.
The following questions are at the core of our proposal i) how do diverse fibroblast states emerge and evolve? ii) which gene regulatory networks drive specificity of these states? ii) which are the functional modules that are driven by apFibros and how are they mechanistically explained? iv) how can we transdifferentiate existing fibroblasts to acquire antigen presenting states? v) how can fibroblast reprogramming help overcome immunotherapy resistance?
The proposed research should help advance mechanistic concepts in what we term the “adaptive immune mesenchyme”, decode the complexity of peripheral antigen presentation in tumors and beyond and promote targeting of the stroma for immunotherapy.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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16 672 VARI-ATHENS
Greece
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