Dr. Pennell's laboratory is investigating novel strategies for immunotherapy, drawing on the immune system's inherent specificity as part of a personalized medicine approach for treating cancer. His team is using the tools of immunology, molecular biology, genetic engineering, and transgenic animals in two research areas that have potentially synergistic applications: the development of DNA-based cancer vaccines; and the development of T-cell chimeric antigen receptors engineered to recognize and bind specific tumor cell-surface antigens, activating T-cell cytotoxicity. Pennell and his University colleagues (notably Drs. Bruce Blazar and Mark Osborn in the Department of Pediatrics) are using clinically tested mouse T-cell CARs with human components that recognize the human antibody CD19, which they have engineered to be expressed in mice B-cell tumors. Their goal is to determine the right dose-based balance between achieving anti-tumor effects and avoiding potentially harmful side effects of CAR therapy.
