NIBIB awards R01 grant to engineer photothermally activated CAR T cells

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institute of Health is funding a collaborative project led by LSI and Dr. Stanislav Emelianov’s Ultrasound Imaging and Therapeutics Research Laboratory. In this project, we will engineer gold nanorod labeled CAR T cells to track delivery of CAR T cells to tumors, remotely activate CAR T cells to enhance their local potency, and monitor key CAR T cell functions within the tumor microenvironment.

Summary | The limited ability to control adoptively transferred CAR T cells at sites of disease contributes to poor anti-tumor responses against solid malignancies. This proposal seeks to develop an image-guided therapy based on photothermal activation of CAR T cells to increase treatment precision and improve patient responses.