Discovery of tumor antigens in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The standard chemotherapy treatments for pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) now achieve high cure rates. However, such aggressive chemotherapy in children has significant consequences on their quality of life. Moreover, the prognosis in case of relapse is very poor, with treatment resistance suggesting that chemotherapy fails to target leukemia stem cells.

The objective of this project, in collaboration with Dr. Perreault’s team, is to identify tumor-specific antigens (TSAs) that can trigger an anti-tumor immune response, being absent in normal cells. To accomplish this project, patient-derived leukemia cell xenograft models (PDX) will be established in immunodeficient mice to perform a proteogenomic analysis of the immunopeptidome, high-throughput transcriptome sequencing, and analysis of drug response in cells derived from PDX.

This project aims to determine whether chemotherapy could influence the abundance of TSAs or induce the emergence of new TSAs, thus enabling a possible combination with immunotherapy.

Faculty Supervisor:

Trang Hoang

Student:

Partner:

Aix-Marseille Université

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: