Marco L. Davila, MD, PhD

The goal of cancer immunotherapy is to adapt the natural components of the immune system to eradicate cancer. T cells are a type of immune cell highly evolved to detect and eradicate diseased cells. Dr. Davila is developing a novel treatment approach that involves genetic engineering of T cells as a safe and effective immunotherapy for blood cancers such as B cell lymphoma. This research has great potential because by genetically targeting T cells to a cancer, the T cell can be forced to recognize a cancer as diseased and initiate direct tumor killing, as well as activate a widespread and long-lived immune response against the cancer.