{"id":587,"date":"2017-03-29T08:59:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/universityfundingprograms\/?p=587"},"modified":"2017-03-29T14:11:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T19:11:49","slug":"designing-the-future-of-immunotherapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/universityfundingprograms\/2017\/03\/designing-the-future-of-immunotherapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing the Future of Immunotherapy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Giorgio_Todd-ForWeb\"

Dr. Todd Giorgio, Professor of Biomedical Engineering<\/p><\/div>\n

Written by Dr. Todd Giorgio, Professor of Biomedical Engineering<\/em><\/p>\n

From cancer to diabetes and chronic infections, our immune system plays an important role in nearly every disease. Accordingly, harnessing the power and exquisite specificity of the immune system has enormous \u2013 and still largely untapped \u2013 potential to improve human health and wellbeing. Therapeutics that \u201ctrain\u201d the immune system to find and destroy malignant cells are revolutionizing cancer therapy; the promise of cancer immunotherapy was Science Magazine\u2019s<\/em> 2013 Breakthrough of the Year. Yet, critical challenges remain. We still do not know why only a fraction of people and\/or certain cancer types respond to these treatments. The toxicities involved in global immune modulation and inflammatory damage to normal tissues are significant and a key limitation to therapy. It is also unclear how to visualize the immune system to monitor treatment or predict patient outcomes. Engineering-based approaches in advanced drug delivery systems, quantitative modeling and medical imaging can be applied to solve challenges in modifying behaviors of particular immune cell types and in characterizing the responses to carefully designed immunomodulatory therapies.<\/p>\n

Engineering Immunity (EI)<\/a> was established in the summer of 2016 through support from the Vanderbilt University (VU) Trans-institutional Programs (TIPs)<\/a> initiative. The mission of EI is to integrate the fields of immunology and engineering at Vanderbilt to address challenges in tumor immunology, advance discovery and empower clinically relevant interventions at the interface of technology and immunity.<\/p>\n

The TIPs application identified the following challenge areas in which Vanderbilt has the foundation to develop visible leadership in this emerging, interdisciplinary field: Imaging and Quantifying the Immune Response\/Status, Programming Immunity and Educating Immune Engineers. The goal of EI is to enhance the long-term interactions of the engineering, imaging and immunology communities at Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

During the first six months of operation, EI has<\/p>\n