Identifying unique protein markers in brain tumours to develop new immune-based treatments
Fast facts
- Title: Empirical determination of the in vivo immunopeptidome in paediatric and adult brain tumours to unlock neoantigens for immunotherapeutic use
- Lead Researcher: Dr Antonio Carlos Fuentes-Fayos
- Where: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
- When: August 2024 – July 2027
- Cost: £225,000 over 3 years
- Research type: Glioblastoma (High grade), Adult and paediatric gliomas, immunotherapy
- Grant round: Future Leaders
High-grade brain tumours, such as glioblastoma and various types of adult and paediatric glioma, are very aggressive and can be devastating to people’s lives even after treatment. Their poor prognosis is due to a multitude of factors, such as the current poor selection of treatment options.
What is it?
Dr. Antonio Carlos Fuentes-Fayos is focused on finding better treatments for high grade brain tumours by exploring the tumour ‘immunopeptidome’, which refers to tiny pieces of proteins, or ‘protein markers’, that can activate the immune system to fight cancer cells. His work will comprise a novel “personalised” modelling approach and incorporate the latest cutting-edge technologies to generate large datasets to uncover the interplay between the immune response, brain tumour evolution, and the effectiveness of current therapies.
Why is it important?
Immune therapies have shown success in other cancers, but we have not yet seen this success in brain tumour treatments. This could be because we do not yet fully understand the immune environment that surrounds the tumour. Antonio’s work aims to look at how the protein pieces in the immunopeptidome change during tumour growth and after treatment. It is hoped that this information could be useful to help design personalised immune therapies to help the immune system to effectively attack and kill the cancer cells.
This work has the power to significantly improve the lives of individuals affected by brain tumours, ushering in a new era of targeted and effective treatment strategies.
Dr Antonio Fuentes-Fayos
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In this section
Dr. Antonio Fuentes-Fayos
Antonio is a postdoctoral researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles. His research is focused on the immunopeptidome of brain tumours. He aims to use a combination of cutting-edge molecular analyses, single-cell sequencing, peptidomics, and modelling techniques to characterise the different cells in gliomas and uncover the interplay between the immune response, brain tumour evolution, and the effectiveness of current therapies.