Jack W. Graffin Professor
Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Bio
Jaehyuk Choi, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Dermatology and of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UTSW. He is the inaugural director of the Center for Cellular Therapies and Cancer Immunology. An NIH-funded physician scientist, Dr. Choi has contributed to our understanding of the cellular and genetic bases of cutaneous lymphomas, reporting the first or the largest series of cutaneous CD4+ (MF, Sezary, and ATL), CD8+, CD4-CD8-, gamma delta, and multiple B cell lymphomas (diffuse large B cell and follicular). These studies have been published in Nature, Nature Cancer, Blood, amongst other journals. Collectively, they have identified clinically actionable biomarkers and therapeutic targets. His work has been recognized with the NIH New Innovator Award, the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, and the Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award amongst others.
One of the outstanding recent advances in cancer treatment is the ability to harvest T cells from patients, genetically engineer them to recognize cancer cells, and reinfuse them into patients. These treatments are termed adoptive cell therapies. Adoptive cell therapies have revolutionized our ability to treat blood cancers, but have yet to make a significant impact on our ability to treat solid tumors like breast cancer. To leverage these cells in breast cancer, we propose to de-risk two possible sources of breast cancer-specific T cells. If successful, we can push forward these technologies to first-in-human clinical trials for breast cancer. However, we may need additional engineering to make these technologies potent enough to cure metastatic breast cancer. There are natural defenses that breast cancers make to protect themselves from invading T cells. These molecules prevent the T cells from surviving in the tumors, let alone killing the breast cancer cells themselves. Despite recent advances in immunotherapies, how to solve this problem remained unclear until now.
Recently, the Choi lab leveraged cancer’s own strengths to supercharge T cell therapies. This technology enables them to endure the harsh environment of solid tumors like breast cancer. Stealing a weapon from T cell cancers, they found they can engineer this altered gene into T cells to cure multiple solid tumors in mice at exceptionally low doses for exceptionally long times. This study has recently been published in Nature. We propose to leverage these potentially game-changing technologies to develop a potentially curative immunotherapy that can be used for patients with triple-negative breast cancer. If successful, this can potentially be leveraged across a larger suit of breast cancer types.
Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Past
Senior Investigator
Deyu Fang, PhD
A Novel Deubiquitinase in Breast Cancer Tumorigenesis and Therapeutic Targeting
Past
Senior Investigator
Ann Marie Flores, PT, PhD
A Pilot Test of the Breast Cancer Pre-habilitation and Prospective Surveillance to Prevent, Detect, and Optimize Physical and Functional Recovery (B-PREPeD)
Past
Senior Investigator
Dr. Jun Huang
Developing a Combinatorial mRNA Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer
Why your gift matters
Your gift helps researchers test bold ideas, generate critical data, and take the first steps toward the next major advancement in breast cancer treatment and care.Together, we can accelerate discoveries that save lives.
