Dr. Denise Cecil, CVI Principal Scientist, was awarded an honorable mention for her abstract and presentation of her work on the link between the microbiome and cancer at the SITC 2023 Spring Scientific meeting. The focus of the meeting held in Denver, March 15 - 17, is "Host Immunity in Immunotherapy Responses: From Discoveries to Precision Oncology.
Dr. Cecil shared her work which shows some T-cells can recognize proteins on both bacteria in our gut and proteins found on tumors. These T-cells secrete a protein called IL-10 which has the effect of reducing inflammation and protecting gut bacteria from destruction by the immune system. She also found that these T-cells can accelerate the growth of tumors in mouse models.
Read more about our efforts to understand the link between the gut microbiome and cancer here: https://www.uwcvi.org/post/gut-check-event-recap-drs-disis-cecil-discuss-what-gut-bacteria-are-teaching-us-about-targeting