Modeling anti-tumor function of human T cells

Mouse models have been essential for establishing the role of the T cells in anti-tumor responses, but they have limited utility in translational studies for the testing of candidate therapeutics due to lack of cross-reactivity of many human antibodies to mouse receptors. Most of the human cell-based models for studying anti-tumor T cell responses, however, have significant biological or practical limitations that constrain their usefulness. This talk will discuss the development of a model system to study antigen-specific T cell-mediated cytotoxicity of HLA-matched human tumor cells based on memory anti-viral T cells, and how optimizing this model using real-time instrumentation has led to new understanding of the interplay among the dynamic variables that impact the interactions between tumor cells and T cells.

Learning Objectives:

1. Approaches to modeling and studying HLA-restricted anti-tumor T cell responses without access to primary tumor samples

2. Variables that can dramatically impact these types of studies

3. How using both real time impedance measurement and live cell imaging has impacted our understanding of the dynamics of these assays