# Transport Oncophysics Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · METHODIST HOSPITAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2020 · $422,589

## Abstract

TRANSPORT ONCOPHYSICS CORE – SUMMARY 
Cancer immunotherapy has recently been demonstrated to be quite effective for the treatment of lung cancer 
and melanoma, but for other indications including breast and pancreatic cancers, its application remains to be 
determined, given the additional challenges posed by the latter cancers (low immunogenicity). We believe that 
optimizing the transport and penetration of drugs and immune cells, systemically and in the tumor 
microenvironment, would improve the immune response in these cancers. Thus, the impact of transport 
phenomena (physical spatio-temporal parameters and aberrations of tumors) on immunotherapeutic efficacy 
should be considered for the development of effective immunotherapies. The proposed Center for 
Immunotherapeutic Transport Oncophysics (CITO) is focused on determining these transport phenomena 
in breast and pancreatic tumor models, in order to improve the transport of immunotherapies through tissues 
and, ultimately, to enable the rational design of optimal immunotherapeutic regimens for patients as part of 
individualized therapy. To support the CITO and its 2 research projects [Project 1 for the transport of cancer 
Nano-dendritic (DC) vaccines; Project 2 for the biophysical barriers in the tumor microenvironment], the 
Transport Oncophysics Core (TOC) will provide imaging, analysis, quantification, and unique oncophysical 
computational tools to rationalize the delivery of immunotherapies, based on the oncophysical modeling 
framework Transport and Biodistribution Theory (TBT). The TBT moves boundaries from classical tools used 
to study pharmacokinetic and efficacy relations, and instead creates novel precision immunotherapeutic tools 
to rationally tailor individual treatments to patients. The overall hypothesis of the TOC is that the biophysical 
properties of tissues (as biological barriers) are determinants that govern biodistribution of 
immunotherapeutics, upstream of (but in synergy with) specific biological target recognition. The distribution 
affects efficacy, adverse effects, and resistance phenomena, and, ultimately - patient outcomes. The TOC will 
aggregate data from the two projects and then provide specific services to rationalize development of and to 
improve the delivery of immunotherapeutics. The TOC will offer three major services to the projects: imaging 
(PET, IVM), data analysis and quantification, and application of computational biodistribution and tumor growth 
models. The underlying logic is that in vivo and pathology imaging provides snapshots and time-lapses of the 
biodistribution of therapeutics. The quantification of individual time-points and transport dynamics will create 
time series of data for computational models to develop spatio-temporal biodistribution, which is a function of 
the tumor microenvironment, immunotherapeutic modality, and their transport properties at therapeutically 
relevant time-scales. Biodistribution of immunotherapy a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9997894
- **Project number:** 5U54CA210181-05
- **Recipient organization:** METHODIST HOSPITAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Haifa Shen
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $422,589
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-29 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9997894

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9997894, Transport Oncophysics Core (5U54CA210181-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9997894. Licensed CC0.

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