Our Discoveries

India’s First Homegrown CAR T-Cell Therapy Has Roots in NCI Collaboration

In October 2023, India’s counterpart to the US Food and Drug Administration, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, approved NexCAR19, an effective, low-cost CAR-T cell therapy. The development of the therapy was made possible by a years-long collaborative journey between the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai with NCI researchers at the NIH Clinical Center. As India’s first approved CAR-T cell therapy, the treatment will be manufactured in Mumbai and is affordable for many.

An image of mouse colon tissue (blue), proliferating stem cells (green) and PEDF (red). Image credit: Girak Kim, et al.

The liver controls intestinal health through the PEDF protein

A new study reveals how the liver and gut communicate to regulate stem cell expansion in the repair of damaged intestinal tissue. The finding, from the lab of Chuan Wu, M.D., Ph.D., has important implications for a lipid-lowering drug that affects that communication.

PROTACtion against resistance of commonly used anti-cancer drug

Drugs known as PIM kinase inhibitors are used to treat a range of cancers, but many patients develop resistance to these medications. Recent research has led to a new class of therapeutics that target the mechanism of this resistance, resulting in increased death of cancer cells.

Molecular signature can identify tumor-targeting immune cells in the blood

Blood samples could be a new source of antitumor T cells for customized cancer immunotherapies.

tumor cells, immune cells, and dead cells

Novel T cell stimulation technique drives potent anti-tumor response

Researchers combined an antibody with an immune-signaling molecule resulting in an agent called STAR0602. A version of the novel agent was designed for and tested in mice, which induced significant tumor shrinkage and increased survival across six different types of cancer while exhibiting little toxicity. The promising lab findings have prompted the launch of a clinical trial in people.

Experimental vaccine halts respiratory growths from HPV infection

An experimental vaccine that trains a patient’s immune system to recognize HPV-infected cells could potentially be used to treat people with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, according to results from an ongoing clinical trial.

Inactivating the WRN protein could kill colorectal and other cancer cells

Rapid inactivation of the Werner Syndrome helicase (WRN), a protein upon which cancer cells that exhibit microsatellite instability often rely for survival, could be effective in killing colorectal and other cancer cells and potentially guide the development of inhibitor drugs.

FDA grants orphan drug designation to indotecan for the treatment of glioma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug status to LMP400 (indotecan) for use in patients with malignant glioma, a cancer of the brain that begins in glial cells (cells that surround and support nerve cells).

Population-specific tumor mutation patterns may reflect breast cancer health disparities

African American, European American and Kenyan patients with breast cancer have different patterns of tumor mutations.

New insights show faulty immune cells are trained to become healthy

Researchers traditionally believed faulty T cells that have the potential to attack someone’s own tissues were eliminated before the cells leave the thymus. Now, research in mice shows that these autoreactive cells are evicted from the thymus and can mature into healthy cancer-fighting cells in the body’s peripheral tissues. This basic science discovery holds important implications for our understanding of autoimmune diseases and cancer.

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