# Microfluidic technology to isolate tumoricidal T-cells from peripheral blood

> **NIH NIH R61** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2023 · $216,584

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) using ex vivo expanded anti-tumor T-cells has garnered significant interest due to
successes in treating melanoma and other cancers. This is a highly personalized therapy, in which autologous
T-cells that can target the tumors are required. However, finding cells that specifically target tumors remains a
major hurdle for the widespread application of T-cell based ACT therapies. The current methods of lymphocyte
enrichment result in modest increases in tumoricidal T-cells with little control over the clonal heterogeneity. A
technology that overcomes these challenges would significantly lower the barriers (e.g., reduce cost, reduce
off-target effects) for broad dissemination of ACT therapies. The primary goal of this project is to develop a
separation technology to enrich a population of lymphocytes with tumoricidal T-cells based on their capacity to
recognize autologous tumor antigens. The premise of our microfluidic technology is that tumoricidal T-cells can
be separated from a bulk leukocyte population when exposed to tumor-derived peptide-major histocompatibility
complex I under optimal flow conditions. The specific aims are to: 1) Develop a microfluidic device to enrich a
population of lymphocytes with antigen specific T-cells, and 2) Demonstrate the capacity of the microfluidic
platform to enrich patient-derived Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells with tumoricidal T-cells using patient-
matched tumor cells. Accomplishing our primary goal will create a potentially disruptive technology that could
pave way for wide-spread application of T-cell based ACT therapies, and the agnostic feature (i.e., no a priori
knowledge of tumor antigen(s) is required) of the technology would make it broadly applicable for a
personalized medicine approach to a range of cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10613173
- **Project number:** 1R61CA278531-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Venktesh Shirure
- **Activity code:** R61 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $216,584
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-08-01 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10613173

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10613173, Microfluidic technology to isolate tumoricidal T-cells from peripheral blood (1R61CA278531-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10613173. Licensed CC0.

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