Immunology

One of our most promising areas of research focuses on the immune system, and how we can harness its power to detect and fight cancer.

While many cancers are still treated with chemotherapy and radiation, we believe the future of cancer treatment lies in strengthening the body’s own immune defences. Our immunology team is exploring how specific immune cells, including T cells, NKT cells, MAIT cells (mucosal associated invariant T cells), and gamma-delta T cells, interact with cancer, and how these interactions can be used to slow or stop disease progression.

We’re also investigating the possibility that defects or imbalances in a person’s immune system may actually allow cancers to take hold or progress undetected. If this proves true, it could open the door to targeted treatments that boost immune responses in high-risk patients.

A key part of this work involves identifying new proteins on the surface of cancer cells, particularly in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and ovarian cancer. By developing antibodies that recognise and bind to these proteins, we may be able to ‘flag’ cancer cells for destruction by the immune system, offering a more precise and less toxic form of treatment.

This research has wide-reaching implications. Our team is investigating how these findings may apply to colorectal, brain, prostate, ovarian, breast, renal, lung, melanoma and pancreato-biliary cancers, as well as several blood cancers.

Thanks to your support, we’re getting closer to understanding how cancer hides from the immune system, and how we might one day stop it from doing so.