License to Kill 2: Empowering the Immune System to Fight Cancer
License to Kill 2: Empowering the Immune System to Fight Cancer
Submitted by Sudha Kumari and Yiran Zheng in the Irvine Laboratory at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
MIT Department of Biological Engineering, MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Koch Institute at MIT
The image shows multiple T cells (small round cells) loaded with nanoparticles (yellow) attacking melanoma tumor cells (green). One potent way of suppressing cancer is by supporting the immune system. This can be achieved by empowering immune cells using nanoparticles carrying drugs that boost their function- an approach also termed as cancer immunotherapy.
This image shows killing in action. The tumor cell (green) on the left (attacked by multiple T cells shown in blue) shows morphological alterations such as rounding, characteristic of poor cell health, while the tumor cell on right with T cell conjugates just being formed, is healthy.