Expanding immunotherapy to seek and destroy cancer tumor cells in dogs and humans

   VBS Professor, Bruce Walcheck and VBS Associate Professor, Jianming (Jimmy) Wu were recently featured in the College of Veterinary Medicine Profiles for Spring 2020, in the write up, "Cancer may try to run, but it's getting harder to hide," by Carolyn Bernhardt.

   Drs. Walcheck and Wu recently developed a patent for an enhanced receptor that binds the Fc region of IgG antibodies. They then use engineered cytotoxic lymphocytes or natural killer (NK) cells to produce the novel receptor. Dr. Walcheck explains, "This is the first-ever engineered iPSC-derived cell therapy cleared for clinical investigation worldwide."

   Dr. Wu adds, "We are asking ourselves, if it works in humans, will it also work in dogs, too? Part of our focus is trying to gain that understanding."