Physics & Astronomy Lecture Series: Dr. Marisa Aikins

“Research Vignettes from a Non-Biologist in a Biomedical World: Nanoparticles and Organoids in Immune-Oncology”

Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. The scientific community has made great strides in both detection and treatment, resulting in longer survival for all types of cancers. Yet, most, if not all, people know someone who has or has had cancer. Despite all of the progress, patients still become resistant to therapies, whether it be chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapies, etc.

A research area that has picked up steam in the last 30 years is immune-oncology. The immune system is the perfect adversary for a disease like cancer. It has evolved over millions of years to detect and eliminate threats to our survival and store that information as immunological memory. Therefore, an ideal scenario is to harness the immune system to detect and kill cancer cells.

There are many methods being investigated to achieve this, but this talk will focus on two nanoparticle-based therapies to elicit immune responses to solid and liquid cancers and the utilization of tumor organoids to identify and investigate immune-mediated resistance mechanisms.

Open to the public