In 2013, Dr. Vijayanand teamed up with Professor Christian Ottensmeier at the Cancer Center, University of Southampton, UK, to set up a large patient-centered cancer immunology program utilizing genomics tools to study T lymphocytes present in cancer tissue which has revealed an important role for tissue resident memory cells in lung cancer survival outcomes (Nature Immunology, Ganesan et al 2017). They are extending this work to other cancer types, other tumor-infiltrating immune cells and lung-resident T cells. This works also sets a platform for profiling studies in cancer that would help guide choice and combination of immunotherapy for patients with cancer.
Selected References
Ganesan AP, Clarke J, Wood O, Garrido-Martin E, Chee S, Mellows T, Samaniego-Castruita D, Singh D, Seumois G, Alzetani A, Woo E, Friedmann PS, King E, Thomas GJ, Sanchez-Elsner T, Vijayanand, P* & Ottensmeier, C. (*corresponding author) (2017). Tissue-resident memory features are linked to the magnitude of cytotoxic T cell responses in human lung cancer. Nature Immunology. 18 (8):940-950. PMID: 28628092. PMCID: PMC6036910.
Clarke J, Panwar B, Madrigal A, Singh D, Gujar R, Wood O, Chee S. J, Eschweiler S, King E. V, Awad A. S, Hanley C. J, McCann K. J, Bhattacharyya S, Woo E, Alzetani A, Seumois G, Thomas G. J, Ganesan A. P, Friedmann P. S, Sanchez-Elsner T, Ay F, Ottensmeier C. H, Vijayanand P (2019). Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of tissue-resident memory T cells in human lung cancer. J Exp Med. 2019; Sep 2;216(9):2128-2149. PMID:31227543. PMCID: PMC6719422.
D Singh, AP Ganesan, B Panwar, S Eschweiler, CJ Hanley, A Madrigal, C Ramírez Suástegui, A Wang, J Clarke,Wood, EM GarridoMartin, SJ Chee, G Seumois, S Belanger, A Alzetani, E Woo, PS Friedmann, SCrotty, GJ Thomas, T Sanchez-Elsner, F Ay, CH Ottensmeier, Vijayanand P. CD4+ follicular helper-like T cells are key players in anti-tumor immunity. bioRxiv 2020.01.08.898346; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.08.898346. Under revision in Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Eschweiler, Simon and Clarke, James and Ramirez Suastegui, Ciro and Panwar, Bharat and Madrigal, Ariel and Chee, Serena and Karydis, Ioannis and Woo, Edwin and Alzetani, Aiman and Elsheikh, Somaia and Hanley, C.J. and Thomas, G. J. and Friedmann, Peter and Sanchez-Elsner, Tilman and Ay, Ferhat and Ottensmeier, Christian and Vijayanand, P. TFR Cells Inhibit Anti-Tumor Immunity and are Responsive to Immune Checkpoint Blockade. CELL-D-20-01085. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3596586 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3596586. Under review in Cell.
Grants
NIH/NCI U01 CA260588-01
SARS-CoV-2-reactive tissue-resident memory T cells in healthy and cancer subjects
