Damon Runyon Researchers

Dr. Vo focuses on T cell-based cancer immunotherapy, such as chimeric antigen receptor “CAR” T cells, as a transformative therapeutic approach. While recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy in treating certain leukemias and lymphomas, further advancements are required to broaden its therapeutic utility. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have the capacity to generate any cell type of the body and represent a potentially inexhaustible source of clinically useful cells. Using a novel strategy to promote the continuous generation of T cell progenitors from PSCs, she will engineer “off-the-shelf” T cells with improved tumor-recognition capability from stem cells. The successful generation of potent, dual-antigen specific T cells from PSCs in large quantities as an off-the-shelf product would be invaluable to the widespread application of T cell-based immunotherapies.