CALIGIURI LANDS $6.5 MILLION NCI ‘OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATOR AWARD’ TO FURTHER NK CELL RESEARCH 

Caligiuri

Yu

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded a $6.5 million, seven-year Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) to OSUCCC Director and James CEO Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, for research that will advance the development of natural killer (NK) cell-based immunology to treat cancer.

Caligiuri—whose lab has long been an international leader in elucidating human NK cell development—states in his project application that human NK cells are a crucial component in the body’s first line of cancer defense.

“Our proposal aims to strengthen (NK) cellular innate immunity to enhance cancer therapy,” he writes. “The knowledge and therapeutic advances obtained from this study will add a new dimension to the armamentarium against cancer.  

“Compelling data now shows that the innate immune cells, such as NK cells, are an important component in mediating the effectiveness of antibody therapy,” he writes. ”Our vision is to add activated, tumor antigen-specific innate immune effector cell therapy to the existing armamentarium against both liquid and solid tumors.”

He and his team, co-led by Jianhua Yu, PhD, intend to accomplish this over the next seven years by:

• gaining a more complete understanding of human NK cell development, including the expression of activating and inhibitory receptors; 
• optimizing the development of human NK cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors; and 
• fully developing “our bi-specific antibody that will bring human NK cells and other innate immune effector cells into the tumor bed.”

He notes that his lab’s “documented consistent success with basic research on NK cell development and effector function over decades, along with our successful translation of a multitude of our discoveries to the clinic for over 1,000 patients, serves as a foundation for us to succeed along this pathway.”

Caligiuri believes his team’s work on this project over the grant period could result in clinical trials in AML, multiple myeloma and glioma that demonstrate significant antitumor activity in patients and lead to prolonged survival of individuals with cancers “that express antigens that will be recognized by our modified innate immune products.”