The ability of cancer cells to evade the immune system is a problem that physicians and patients face. It renders innovative immunotherapies ineffective in many patients. Scientists work around the clock to discover how cancer cells pull this off. This year, group leaders Pia Kvistborg and William Faller will be approaching this issue from a new angle.
Immune cells recognize the cancer cells by the look of their outer layers. Their coat, so to speak. “We study the way cells make their own coats”, says William Faller, junior group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. “Cancer cells change their coats, which allows them to go incognito. We’re dying to know how they manage to do this.”
Faller is an expert on ribosomes - little protein-production machines inside the cell. “Over the last few years, researchers have come to realize that this is a lot more complicated than previously believed. Everyone always thought that all ribosomes were equal. It turns out that there are different types of these little protein factories, some of which can change which proteins are being produced.”
A ribosome translates mRNA into a functional protein.
Together with immunology expert Pia Kvistborg, Faller will be studying these different types of ribosomes and the role they might play in the ability of cancer cells to evade immune attacks. “The concept of ribosomes being different is very new. Scientists understand very little about it, and we currently do not have the right tools to study this yet. But it has a huge potential to be important in other contexts as well.”
The 250,000 USD associated with the American Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE award will allow Kvistborg and Faller to explore different groups of ribosomes and immune cells’ responses to them. This could help understand which patients will (not) respond to immunotherapy, and why.
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