Drew Weissman, MD, PhD

Developing and testing a novel vaccine for triple-negative breast cancer.

Impact

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and deadly form of the disease with only 35 to 45 percent of patients responding to standard-of-care chemotherapy with complete tumor clearance. TNBC has a high propensity to spread to other organs and tissues, and the 5-year survival rate for metastatic disease is only 11 percent. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new treatments for TNBC. These tumors have a high degree of gene mutations which leads to the production of tumor-specific proteins called tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Dr. Weissman and his team are exploiting these findings to develop a novel TNBC vaccine to advance personalized care and expand the use of immunotherapy against TNBC that currently has few options.

What’s next

Dr. Weissman and his colleagues will leverage cutting-edge lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology to construct an mRNA-LNP vaccine against TNBC. The lipids serve to encapsulate the otherwise fragile mRNA and allow it to pass through the immune cell membrane. There, the antigen-encoding mRNA produces the specific antigen to stimulate the body’s immune system. In this way, the body can mount an effective immune response and destroy the target antigen or cells carrying the antigen. Next, they will test the mRNA-LNP vaccine in previously developed laboratory models. Building on their results, they will develop more sophisticated laboratory models for rigorous testing of the vaccine with the goal to translate their findings to the clinic.