# Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (CCII).

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE · 2024 · $947,067

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Research Question to be Addressed:
 The application of immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), in the treatment of
cancer has led to significant improvements in long-term patient outcomes. However, existing therapies are not
effective in all patients, and our knowledge of the immunological factors that contribute to positive treatment
responses and resistance remains limited. This demands targeted research efforts to more comprehensively
characterize immune profiles in patients receiving immunotherapies, as a means to uncover biological
mechanisms of action and identify more effective biomarkers of treatment response or resistance. Novel tumor-
infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies hold great promise in the clinic for cancer patients that have proven
refractory to other treatment strategies. This proposal will take a multi-omic and data-driven approach to deeply
characterize immunological signatures in blood and tumor tissues obtained from melanoma patients participating
in a clinical trial testing the efficacy of a novel TIL therapy. Our goal is to identify specific biomarkers that
associate with treatment outcomes. This effort will result in unique and rich immunological datasets and novel
tools and models for clinical outcome prediction and will drive the design of next-generation immunotherapies.
Impact of Proposed Team Science:
 To effectively address the research questions posed, we have assembled a team of researchers with
diverse expertise and skill sets. Our team builds from our parent COBRE, drawing on the extensive expertise of
MPIs Chesney and Yan, who are world leaders in cancer immunology and clinical research. Both will make
critical contributions through administrative oversight. Our research team includes three independent
investigators with established research programs in cancer immunology (Yaddanapudi; Aim 1), genomics and
immunogenetics (Watson; Aim 2), and bioinformatics and data science (Park; Aim 3). Studies proposed in Aims
1 and 2 are focused on the deep characterization of immunological profiles of melanoma patient tumors, TILs,
and blood collected pre- and post-treatment using multi-omics approaches. These aims will delineate
immunological variables that vary between tissues and patients in the context of TIL therapy. Given the complex
nature of the high-dimensional datasets to be generated in Aims 1 and 2, the activities planned for Aim 3 will be
critical to advancing the overall objectives of the proposal. Specifically, studies proposed in Aim 3 will focus on
building more streamlined pipelines and tools for processing and analysis of data generated in Aims 1 and 2. In
addition, the second major activity of Aim 3 will include the construction of novel machine learning models for
predicting therapy outcomes, via the integration of datasets (from Aims 1 and 2) with the rich de-identified clinical
data that will be collected as part of the trial. Critically, the completion of the ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11045959
- **Project number:** 3P20GM135004-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jason A. Chesney
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $947,067
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-02-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11045959

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11045959, Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (CCII). (3P20GM135004-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11045959. Licensed CC0.

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