MCC Womens Strong Pilot: Engineering a Local Immune Training Platform for Personalized Cancer Vaccines

Applicant: Ni Su, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Cancer vaccines are designed to train the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. However, many current vaccine approaches focus on only one or two tumor markers. Because cancers are highly diverse and can change over time, this limited targeting allows some cancer cells to escape immune detection, leading to treatment failure or recurrence. In addition, identifying the “right” tumor markers for each patient can be time-consuming and expensive, limiting broad clinical impact. Our research aims to develop a new type of personalized cancer vaccine that uses materials taken directly from tumor cells. These tumor cell membranes naturally contain a wide range of cancer-related markers, allowing the immune system to recognize multiple targets simultaneously. By training the immune system to attack several tumor markers simultaneously, this approach may reduce the likelihood that cancer cells can hide, adapt, or return after treatment. Equally important is safety. Many immune-stimulating treatments are delivered throughout the body, which can cause harmful side effects. To address this challenge, we are building a sponge-like biomaterial that can be placed under the skin. This material acts as a localized “training center” for immune cells. Instead of exposing the entire body to strong immune stimulants, we activate immune cells in a controlled and focused environment. The material is carefully engineered so immune cells can enter, interact with tumor- derived signals, and become properly trained before traveling through the body to attack cancer cells. This project will optimize the design of this immune-training platform and evaluate whether it can generate strong, multi-target anti-cancer immune responses in laboratory models. If successful, this strategy could establish a new foundation for personalized cancer vaccines that are safer, more precise, and adaptable to many different tumor types. Support from Markey Women Strong will accelerate this work, generate critical early data, and help move this promising approach toward future translational studies that could ultimately benefit patients facing complex and treatment-resistant cancers.