Cellular Immunity

Cellular Immunity - Research at Peter Mac

The Cellular Immunity laboratory undertakes basic and pre-clinical research in cancer immunology, with a view to combining new cancer immunotherapies with current first line cancer therapies.

Research Focus

Basic studies of the role of immunity in the tumour microenvironment.
Immunosuppressive pathways that prevent tumour regression.
The biology of natural killer (NK) cells and NKT cells.
Translational studies designing and testing new combination therapies pre-clinically and clinically in cancer patients.

Research Overview

The broad aims of the Cellular Immunity laboratory are:

(1) to study how the immune system responds to and interacts with transformed tissue/cells

(2) to define new ways of more effectively killing cancer cells and harnessing the immune system to treat cancer.

The immune system is made up of innate (early) and adaptive (memory) components, and other immune cells that primarily affect or regulate these processes. The coordination between these components and the network of cells that comprises an effective immune response to cancer, particularly at the level of the tumour microenvironment, are poorly understood. We wish to apply the knowledge gained to design and test new combination therapies pre-clinically and clinically in cancer patients.

The studies have a number of unique aspects:
a) novel combinations of agents not being used elsewhere,
b) rational dissection of key genetic pathways,
c) state-of-the-art models of cancer and immunodeficiency in mice for modelling treatment and toxicity and assessing mechanism of action, and
d) state-of-the-art monoclonal antibodies and access to humanised reagents.

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