Rita Serda, research assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, and her colleagues have been researching ways in which cancer cells can be transformed into stable, pathogen-mimicking cells in order to create personalized cancer vaccines. Earlier this month, their innovative research was featured in the prestigious science journal, Nature Biomedical Engineering, along with their research article, “Cancer vaccines from cryogenically silicified tumor cells functionalized with pathogen-associated molecular patterns.”
Dr. Serda and her team have been working towards developing a personalized cancer vaccine that could utilize a person’s immune system to attack cancerous tumors. Tumor cells are made up of unique proteins that vary from person to person which can allow the immune system to sometimes distinguish between tumor cells and non-cancerous cells. By collecting cells from an individual’s tumor, they could then create an individualized treatment to target the same cancer.
Read more about Dr. Serda’s research in the November 4 article, “Dressed-up tumour cells make up a personalized cancer vaccine,” on the Nature Biomedical Engineering Website here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03021-4.
View the research article, “Cancer vaccines from cryogenically silicified tumour cells functionalized with pathogen-associated molecular patterns,” on the Nature Biomedical Engineering Website here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-021-00795-w.