Dimiter V. Tassev is a graduate student working in Dr. Cheung's laboratory. He is pursuing his PhD in Cancer Biology at the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Immunotherapy, a treatment approach by which cancer is targeted using the immune system, is safer and more specific then conventional treatment strategies such as chemotherapy. More specifically, monoclonal antibodies have been extremely valuable tools and therapeutic agents in the fight against cancer (Tassev & Cheung 2009). My research focuses on the processing and presentation of tumor-associated T cell antigens; HLA-A2 molecules containing 9-10 amino acid peptides derived from the tumor cells' own proteins. These T cell antigens are targets by which T cells detect and destroy cancer cells. The importance of this work stems from the fact that most T cell antigens have been weakly characterized even though T cell vaccines have been widely used in the clinical setting. Using phage display technology, we have selected highly specific scFv antibodies against a variety of T cell antigens. With these antibodies, we have been able to show preferential processing of peptides based on their sequence, leading to subsequent presentation to cytotoxic T cells. By understanding what peptide sequences allow our immune system to present antigens to T cells, future vaccines can be designed to be more potent with greater efficacy. In addition, we expect that these antibodies could even be used as therapeutic agents in the passive setting, bypassing the need for antigen-specific T cells.
Publications
Tassev DV, Cheung NK (2009) Monoclonal antibody therapies for solid tumors. Expert Opin Biol Ther 9(3):341-353. [PubMed Abstract]
