# Integrated Immune Engineering for Poor Prognosis Cancers

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2022 · $1,869,132

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
A key limitation to effective immunotherapy is the physical access of immune cells to the cancer cells. We
propose to develop a multiscale tumor simulator to predict tumor dynamics based on immune and cancer
cell migration and net proliferation as measured quantitatively from live cell microscopy. The tumor
simulator will be developed by biomedical engineers working in close collaboration with immunologists and
genetic engineers who are developing immunotherapies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and
glioblastoma. The tumor simulator will be a computational platform that will help guide immunotherapy
development and so will evolve to become an immunotherapy simulator. In addition, we will integrate state-
of-the-art genome engineering and microenvironmental engineering to bring a full suite of engineering
approaches to bear on the simulator development. Together, the simulator will be used to make
quantitative, testable predictions that are then tested experimentally using pharmacological and genetic
perturbations. By iterative model development we will test our central hypothesis that immune cell proximity
is a major determinant of effective anti-tumoral immune response, and limiting to effective immunotherapy
of solid tumors. Altogether, our Program Project will develop a comprehensive biophysics-based simulator
to predict tumor progression and accelerate immunotherapy development.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10489756
- **Project number:** 5P01CA254849-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID ANDREW LARGAESPADA
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,869,132
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-16 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10489756

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10489756, Integrated Immune Engineering for Poor Prognosis Cancers (5P01CA254849-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10489756. Licensed CC0.

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