# CORE 1: SHARED RESOURCE CORE

> **NIH NIH U54** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2020 · $249,313

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Exciting clinical breakthroughs with checkpoint blockade antibodies and adoptive T cell transfers have
transformed the field of cancer immunotherapy, demonstrating the power of harnessing the immune system to
eliminate cancer cells. However, fundamental challenges and questions remain. Significant clinical responses
have only been observed in a subset of patients and cancer types, and it is currently not known what biological
properties of tumors determine clinical responses, nor what strategies to adopt in clinical contexts where
current immunotherapies are ineffective. To ultimately address these clinical challenges and to design
predictably effective cancer treatments, we must deepen our fundamental understanding of interactions
between tumors and the immune system at the molecular, cellular, and systems levels. The CSBC Research
Center for Cancer Systems Immunology at MSKCC will bring the tools of systems biology to investigate
cancer-immune system interactions at multiple stages of disease progression to answer central questions in
cancer immunology and inform the design of novel immunotherapeutic interventions.
We have organized our Research Center around three central scientific projects that examine cancer-immune
interactions at distinct stages of disease progression: cancer initiation and early tumorigenesis (Project I);
established and progressing tumors (Project II); latent disease and metastasis in (Project III). In Project I, we
will combine new epigenomics technologies and innovative single-cell analyses with state-of-the-art systems
biology approaches to decipher the underlying molecular and epigenetic programs of dysfunctional tumor-
specific T cell differentiation in early tumorigenesis. We will further elucidate how dynamics in the mutational
tumor antigen landscape and stromal and immune cell populations determine such states and model and test
in mouse and human tumors how distinct T cell states determine sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade. In
Project II, we will use quantitative analysis of cell types and cell states by functional, flow cytometric,
population RNA-seq and droplet RNA sequencing together with ecological models of cancer, immune, and
stromal cell populations to study the response of the tumor ecosystem to immunotherapeutic perturbations in
established tumors. In Project III, we will examine the evolutionary dynamics of innate immune system control
of metastatic disease, a new area of investigation in cancer immunology. We will investigate the heterogeneity
of latent cancer cells in their capacity for immune evasion, and we will use quantitative methods, including live
cell imaging, to model latent tumor cell evasion of innate immune control and the dynamics of cycles of latent
cell proliferation and potential editing by NK cells. A Shared Resource Core will provide state-of-the-art
single-cell droplet sequencing technology and computational analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data (scRNA-
seq). This S...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9980804
- **Project number:** 5U54CA209975-05
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** Dana Pe'er
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $249,313
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-26 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9980804

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9980804, CORE 1: SHARED RESOURCE CORE (5U54CA209975-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9980804. Licensed CC0.

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