# Immune Monitoring and Tissue Analysis

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2021 · $294,002

## Abstract

Immunotherapy has advanced tremendously in the past decade and cellular products are now being leveraged
efficiently in a number of settings. Targeted therapeutic NK cell interventions and allogeneic NK cell products, in
particular, hold a great deal of promise due to their ability to quickly kill tumor cells without graft versus host
disease (GVHD) effects, as seen with T cells. This grant focuses on clinical implementation of novel NK targeted
therapeutics and third-party NK cell products in a variety of cancer settings. An overarching hypothesis of this
PPG is that successful tumor control by NK cells is mediated not only through direct cytolytic activity but also
through recruitment of other immune components and interactions with the tumor microenvironment (TME). To
that end, Core C will provide seamless sample processing and state-of-the-art assays to best inform the projects
on how NK cell interventions and NK cell products perform, alter the immune landscape, and interact with the
TME. The Core integrates the processing, storage/annotation, distribution, and analytic capabilities of the
Translational Therapy Laboratory, an NCI funded Cancer Center Support Grant shared resource, with a number
of novel techniques to gain deep understanding of NK cell biology, the immune landscape influencing and
resulting from NK cell intervention, and the tumor microenvironment the NK cell interventions must operate in.
Mass cytometry, CyTOF, will be used to phenotypically evaluate NK cells and immune reconstitution at a high
level of detail. The CODEX platform will be leveraged to maximize histologic analysis of the TME, and a variety
of flow cytometric and imaging-based assays will be used to determine NK cell function prior to and after patient
treatment. Assays will be carried out equally across all projects to determine differences in pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamic profiles of each of the products so they can be fairly compared to each other and inform
project leaders on how to best implement NK cell immunotherapeutic interventions. Uniform, high-quality data
generated in these studies will be integrated with clinical outcomes, in collaboration with Cores A and B, and
will be made available to all of the projects in order to maximize synergy and limit variation generated by having
different laboratories carry out assays for individual projects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10172131
- **Project number:** 2P01CA111412-16
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Martin Felices
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $294,002
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2005-07-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10172131

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10172131, Immune Monitoring and Tissue Analysis (2P01CA111412-16). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10172131. Licensed CC0.

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