Alberto Delaidelli

The ability for cancers to grow rapidly is in part due to the activation of certain proteins exposed on the membrane of cancer cells. The goal of immunotherapy is to target cells exposing these proteins while sparing normal, healthy cells. Among immunotherapy strategies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy exploits the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. CAR T cell therapy has achieved promising results in pediatric blood cancers; however, this strategy has not been tested extensively in pediatric brain tumors such as medulloblastoma. A major barrier is that most targets on the surface of cancer cells are currently unknown. As part of my research, we are identifying new targets for medulloblastoma immunotherapy and developing CAR T cells against them. In addition, we are testing the efficacy of newly developed CAR T cells in mice with medulloblastoma. The CAR T cells developed in this project will be directly translatable to the clinic and designed to have a major beneficial impact on the outcome of children affected by medulloblastoma.