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Besides learning a lot and having tremendous fun, we achieved something great this year! Check it out!
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Find out more about the Freiburg 2017 Team!
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In our project, we used a genetic AND gate to improve the safety of CAR therapy! Learn more about it here...
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We generated stable cell lines, a knockout in two cell lines, characterized x promoters and much more! Check out our results page!
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To better understand our project, we modeled gene expression within our genetic circuit and T cell migration. Learn more here...
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In human practice, we wanted to hear the thoughts and concerns about our project. Check out our survey and interviews with experts working on the field!
CARTELTM
Chimeric Antigen Receptor on T Cells Expressed Locally in the Tumor Microenvironment
A new approach to cancer treatment is the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy, which shows promising results fighting tumors in clinical trials. It consists of autologous isolated T cells modified with a chimeric receptor based on the T-cell receptor combined with the recognition domain of an antibody. Upon reinjection, CAR T cells exhibit cytotoxicity with high affinity towards cells displaying the antigen. However, clinical trials have shown that as tumor antigens are not solely expressed on tumor cells, but also on healthy tissues, grave off-target effects like the Graft-versus-Host-Disease may occur. In order to avoid such side-effects, we engineer CAR T cell lines specifically activated by factors of the tumor microenvironment. Controlled by a genetic AND gate system the T cells need two input signals in order to express CAR. This would allow highly localized cytotoxic activity of T cells and provide safer cell-based cancer immunotherapy especially for solid tumors.