Project description
Characterisation of T cells against cancer neoantigens
Activating the immune system to fight cancer is a promising concept which has been met with limited success. It seems to be effective only in a subset of patients, while immunosuppression and the identification of immunogenic cancer targets remain big challenges. The EU-funded Tumour T cells project will investigate immune responses against neoantigens produced from mutated tumour proteins. Scientists will examine spontaneous anti-tumour T cell responses in the presence and absence of acute inflammatory conditions and assess how they affect tumour rejection. The characterisation of neoantigen-specific T cells will provide important insight into cancer immunosurveillance and help design more effective interventions in the future.
Objective
Cancer is a global health burden and the second leading cause of death worldwide. In recent years, the development of immunotherapy has revolutionised the approach to cancer therapy. A significant limitation, however, is that it is only effective in a subset of patients and the biggest challenges remain the identification of immunogenic targets on human cancers and overcoming immunosuppression. Neoantigens, which are newly formed antigens that arise from mutated tumour proteins, are promising targets in immunotherapy. With the proposed project, we aim to investigate the immune response against human neoantigens which will be induced in a novel humanised tumour mouse model. This unique mouse model harbours the entire human CD8 TCR repertoire and expresses human HLA-2. We will test whether human neoantigens can elicit spontaneous anti-tumour T cell responses in acute inflammatory versus resting conditions, ultimately leading to tumour rejection. We hypothesise that T cells are not able to reject tumours in absence of acute inflammation, similar to the development of most human cancers. To investigate why neoantigen-specific T cells become dysfunctional and fail to reject tumours, we will characterise the functional state and metabolic phenotype of neoantigen-specific T cells by flow cytometry, metabolomics and TCR sequencing. In addition, we will characterise the TCR repertoire of T cells that cause tumour rejection under acute inflammatory conditions. Lastly, we will compare the therapeutic efficacy of adoptively transferred T cells transduced with newly identified TCRs with neoantigen-based vaccines against large established tumours. Overall, this project will contribute to the understanding of immunosurveillance and establish novel techniques to test predicted neoantigens. The identification of human immunogenic targets has the potential to make a global impact on cancer intervention.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
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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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
13125 Berlin
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.