Juliane Mietz – VJRegenMed

Engineering NK cell-based cancer treatments

Simon Ng — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 11:18:06 +0000

Juliane Mietz, University Of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, comments on ongoing research to develop anti-cancer natural killer (NK) cell therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells were initially studied alongside CAR T-cell, where both were engineered with CD28 or a 4-1BB costimulatory domains, domains found in axicabtagene ciloleucel and tisagenlecleucel, to assess the clinical efficacy of CAR-NK cells. Further pre-clinical studies involving CAR-NK cells are additionally underway to enhance their cytotoxicity in patients. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

An overview of mouse models to study cell therapies for cancer

Simon Ng — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 13:19:59 +0000

Juliane Mietz, University Of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, provides an overview of mouse models currently in use for the pre-clinical study of immunotherapies, including cell line-derived xenografts (CDX) and patient-derived xenografts (PDX). CDX models are derived from established and easily accessible cell lines, which is beneficial for monitoring tumor growth and assessing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell efficacy. PDX models consist of tissue from the patient’s tumor and will retain the pathophysiology of the patient. However the aforementioned models are modelled in immunocompromised mice and humanized mice models consisting of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) derived from fetal liver tissue or cord blood represent an alternative. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

Assessing immunotherapies with a novel tumor model using humanized mice

Simon Ng — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 13:19:58 +0000

Juliane Mietz, University Of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, discusses the creation of a novel tumor model in humanized mice to advance research into cellular immunotherapies. An endogenous immune system was created using hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) sourced from human fetal liver tissue and an immortalized lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) was produced using tumor tissue derived from donor B-cells infected with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). LCL was injected in the humanized mince to assess the functionality of the endogenous immune system and further assays showed increased expression of activation markers such as HLA-DR. The novel mouse model represents a viable alternative to current immunocompromised mouse models. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.