Bio-Techne Go Everywhere Travel Grant - March Recipient Selected!

Bio-Techne’s Go Everywhere Travel Grant Program awards $1000 USD (or equivalent) to one researcher each month to attend the meeting of their choice. This grant program allows the researcher to attend more targeted meetings in their field and provides funding to support both small and large scientific associations that promote discovery and collaboration.

The recipient of the March 2019 grant is Jorieke Weiden, a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Tumor Immunology department at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Bio-Techne’s Go Everywhere Travel Grant Program awards $1000 USD (or equivalent) to one researcher each month to attend the meeting of their choice. This grant program allows the researcher to attend more targeted meetings in their field and provides funding to support both small and large scientific associations that promote discovery and collaboration.

Jorieke has chosen to apply the grant to attend the Gordon Research Conference Cancer Nanotechnology in Vermont, USA on June 23 -28, 2019.

Jorieke Weiden, a Postdoctoral Researcher at Radboud University Medical Center is the March 2019 recipient of the Bio-Techne Go Everywhere Travel Grant.

Synthetic polymers as versatile tools for efficient T cell expansion and delivery

T cells play a central role in cancer immunotherapy as they are key effector immune cells that can specifically recognize and eliminate cancerous cells. T cells can be activated using artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs), which aim to mimic dendritic cells in their ability to prime T lymphocytes. aAPCs provide an off-the-shelf strategy that allows for a high level of control over the molecular cues that are presented, and can be exploited to expand tumor-specific T cells ex vivo for adoptive cell transfer or to induce strong anti-tumor T cell responses in vivo.

Filamentous polyisocyanopeptide polymers (PICs) are highly promising synthetic aAPCs that display unique semiflexibility and strain-stiffening behavior. PIC polymers (200–400 nm in size) can be functionalized with multiple biomolecules such as antibodies and cytokines that be presented to T cells in multivalent manner to evoke robust T cell responses. In this research, we developed a strategy to graft PIC polymers with one end to a surface under aqueous conditions. The remaining part of the polymer is decorated with functional groups to support attachment of biomolecules. We found that beads presenting T cell-activating antibodies via surface-grafted PIC provided better T cell activation and enhanced cytokine production compared to standard beads where the same signals were directly attached. This indicates that surface-grafted PIC polymers provide an improved system for superior ex vivo T cell expansion.

Another interesting property of PIC polymers is that they display thermo-sensitive behavior. By tuning the number of ethylene-glycol groups in the polymer side chains, PICs can be designed to gelate at temperatures above 16°C to form transparent hydrogels. We found that PIC hydrogels support the survival and vigorous expansion of pre-stimulated T cells in vitro at high cell densities, highlighting their potential as 3D culture systems for efficient T cell expansion. We studied random and chemokine-directed migration of CCR7+ and CCR7- T cells (measured with Bio-Techne CCR7 antibodies) in the PIC hydrogels using recombinant CCL21 (Bio-Techne) and found that the dense polymer network restricts T cell migration in vitro. PIC hydrogels that were injected subcutaneously gelated instantly in vivo, after which a confined 3D structure was formed that remained localized for at least four weeks. T cells co-delivered with PIC polymers egressed gradually from the PIC gel and migrated into distant organs. This confirms that PIC hydrogels can be used to locally deliver cells within a supportive environment.

These results demonstrate that PIC polymers are highly promising synthetic polymers for both the in vitro expansion and in vivo delivery of T cells. Covalent attachment of biomolecules onto PIC polymers provides the opportunity to steer the phenotype, survival or functional response of adoptively transferred T cells. As such, PIC polymers provide a powerful tool for generation and dispersion of functional tumor-reactive T cells to support strong anti-cancer immune responses.

Bio-Techne and our brands are proud to support Jorieke’s work and the work of the many researchers that have applied to our travel grant program so far this year. If you are interested in applying for any of our travel grants, please go to www.rndsystems.com/travel.