VECR at Fred Hutch
It is very difficult to pick a favourite part of VECR. It is sad that we couldn’t experience the full program in person, but it was amazing being in an environment with so many people interested in the same type of science that I am. When I was in a science class at school, even though I was really invested in some topics, many of my classmates weren’t. But in VECR, everyone was super involved and attentive, and I had never experienced that before. All of the talks, lessons, and activities were so engaging and interesting. Personally, I think the best part of VECR was Alicia Morales’ presentation on immunology. I had already known a little about the immune system from my biology class, but during this talk I got to learn a lot more. Alicia talked about a few different immunotherapies used to treat cancer. For example, CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T cells are T cells that have been genetically engineered to have an antigen receptor with the ability to attach to a specific surface protein on cancer.. Transgenic TCRs (T Cell Receptor) are T cells that have been harvested from the patient, given a new receptor (using the gene editing tool CRISPR) that helps them find cancer cells, and placed back into the patient’s body. I also learned a lot about the different parts of a cell. Everyone is familiar with the mitochondria and the nucleus, but I got to learn about organelles like the golgi apparatus, which packages proteins into vesicles; and peroxisomes, which break down molecules.
Earlier this year, Dr. Andrew McGuire of Fred Hutch’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division led a team in discovering that the AMMO1 antibody, which McGuire discovered in April of 2018, could potentially be used to create a vaccine for Epstein-barr Virus (EBV). I chose this article because I am very interested in immunology and vaccine development, and this research is very important for the many EBV patients all around the world, especially in developing countries. This virus is the cause of many auto-immune diseases, and approximately 200,000 cancer cases and 140,000 deaths yearly. It is one of the most common viruses in humans, known in the US for being the cause of mononucleosis, or “mono”. AMMO1 is the first human antibody with the ability to block EBV infection of cells in vitro. It works by attaching to and neutralizing antigens and, unlike previous vaccine attempts, is effective in epithelial cells as well as B cells, the two types of cells EBV targets. These cells can then mutate and turn into cancer—most commonly Burkitt Lymphoma and nasopharyngeal cancers. The McGuire lab has been testing AMMO1 in humanized mice (engrafted with human B cells). When injected with a high dose of EBV, none of these mice showed symptoms. These results suggest that it is possible that a vaccine could protect the human body from the virus. Dr. McGuire’s team is working on creating a vaccine that will be able to teach human B cells to create AMMO1 themselves when exposed to EBV.
EBV under microscope (© DKFZ)
Sources:
Comments