PhD in Biomedical Sciences

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy has revolutionised the field of cancer immunotherapy with impressive treatment outcomes in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), and multiple myeloma with six CAR-T therapies now approved by the FDA. Current CAR-T cell therapies face significant limitations due to complex and expensive ex vivo manufacturing processes and severe toxicities, which restrict widespread access and clinical effectiveness. In vivo engineering strategies are desirable because they promise to simplify treatment delivery, lower costs, improve safety, and potentially broaden the scope of CAR-T therapy to more patients and cancer types. Both viral and non-viral engineering are strategies are currently under investigation for in vivo CAR-T engineering, with both approaches now in early-stage clinical trials. Non-viral delivery of genetic material encoding CARs using nanocarriers is an attractive option due to improved safety profile compared to their viral counterparts. Here we will investigate novel delivery peptides conjugated with antibodies to target CD8+ T cells for in vivo T cell targeting and delivery of mRNA encoding CAR constructs.