# Transforming Human Pancreatic Cancer Into An Immunologic Disease

> **NIH NIH P01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $2,582,338

## Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is rising in incidence but remains deadly for most patients. Some
progress has occurred in activating immune responses against PDA, however there are unanswered questions
that need to be addressed for immunotherapy to have a significant impact on the lives of PDA patients. Our
Team will address two critical problems: 1) inefficient generation of high quality T cells targeted against
PDA antigens capable of tumor trafficking and killing; and 2) multiple cellular barriers that comprise stromal
and myeloid cells that inhibit effector T cell trafficking and function in the PDA tumor microenvironment (TME).
Both clinical studies (“science in patients”) and pre-clinical studies (mouse models) will be conducted to address
these issues, and to evaluate novel combinatorial therapies that successfully modulate PDA stroma and chronic
inflammation to facilitate improved tumor infiltration of high quality and durable cancer targeted T cells. This
program is composed of 4 Projects and 4 Cores. The four projects will address the common overarching theme
that PDA is composed of multiple cell types and signals that inhibit T cell induction, trafficking into, and function
in tumors. Each project will address either the induction of quality T cells or the modulation of suppressive cell
populations as major barriers to T cell infiltration and activation, and all will integrate agents that bypass these
suppressive mechanisms with optimal T cell therapies. Projects 1, 2, and 4 will combine ongoing preclinical
studies aimed at uncovering mechanisms of suppression of different barriers with translational clinical trials that
study combination therapy to bypass these suppressive mechanisms. Project 3 will conduct a biomarker heavy
clinical trial using a multi-arm Platform design that will add and delete immune modulatory arms based on data
from biomarker analysis in this Project and from data that feeds into this Project from the other 3 Projects.
Standard procedures will be used across Projects to collect and bank serial biospecimens obtained from patients
treated on the clinical trials. The Cores will be critical for conducting the proposed assays and for analysis and
integration of the data. A Program database will be developed to allow for integration of data generated from
these assays across the entire Program. This will be a unique database that will also bring in data from other
sources such as the TCGA database, and will provide the Program Team with the ability to compare results
based on the genetics and inflammatory composition of each patient’s tumor and their response to the therapy
they received. The final outcomes will include results from a number of therapeutic interventions, approaches to
optimize each therapeutic, the potential to further integrate therapies that were tested in one or more projects in
future trials, and the ability to develop TME signatures that may further stratify patients for therapeutic
inter...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10170019
- **Project number:** 1P01CA247886-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ELIZABETH M. JAFFEE
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $2,582,338
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10170019

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10170019, Transforming Human Pancreatic Cancer Into An Immunologic Disease (1P01CA247886-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10170019. Licensed CC0.

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