# Secretion responsive Hydrogels for Identification of Functional single T cells (SHIFT)

> **NIH NIH R21** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $215,145

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Adoptive cell therapy has the potential to circumvent cancer immune evasion by employing patient-derived,
tumor-specific cytotoxic T-cells to attack cancer. While promising responses of advanced cases to cancer
immunotherapy bolster the optimism surrounding these therapeutic strategies, interpatient variations in treatment
responses demand a new method to select highly effective tumor-specific cytotoxic T-cells for better and safe
immunotherapy.
We propose a high-throughput, single-cell level method for identifying and recovering highly functional T cells
that secrete tumor-killing signals in the presence of tumors. Our proposed technology builds on transformational
advances in the generation of droplet emulsions, secretomics, and new hydrogel-based sensing techniques we
recently developed. In this assay, tumor-killing T cells and cancer cells will be encapsulated in pairs in a uniformly
sized, secreted factor-sensitive hydrogel droplet using a microfluidic droplet generator. The resulting isolated
reaction compartments for each cell pair will prevent the mixing of T cells' multiple secreted factors and will
concentrate them to allow sensitive detection. The hydrogel will respond to a factor secreted by functional T cells
via a dramatic size change, allowing hydrogels with active T cells to be reliably isolated from the heterogeneous
mixture using a hydrodynamic size-based particle sorting mechanism. The sorted pairs will be individually
recovered using an aspiration pipette and the hydrogel shell dissolved without cell damage, allowing for the
recovery of functional individual T cells. We propose to use this high-throughput assay, capable of screening
millions of T cells, to identify tumor-responsive T cells and to recover them for downstream analysis or
proliferation. This assay is simple, sensitive, and versatile enough to be used by a wide research community or
eventually within clinical settings for isolating and profiling rare cells with target secretory phenotypes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10272884
- **Project number:** 1R21CA251027-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rebecca Schulman
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $215,145
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-16 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10272884

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10272884, Secretion responsive Hydrogels for Identification of Functional single T cells (SHIFT) (1R21CA251027-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10272884. Licensed CC0.

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