This week we profile a recent publication in the Journal of Autoimmunity from Dr. Dominic Boardman (pictured, front row, second from left) and a team in Dr. Megan Levings’ (front row, second from right) lab at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
Can you provide a brief overview of your lab’s current research focus?
Our lab works on developing regulatory T cell (Treg) based therapies to improve treatment options for autoimmune and transplant related conditions.
What is the significance of the findings in this publication?
We developed the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets a microbial antigen and showed the potential for Tregs expressing a microbe-specific CAR to control inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease.
What are the next steps for this research?
Our next steps are to understand more about structure-function relationship between CARs and Tregs to develop an optimized, genetically modified Treg cell therapy for a variety of different inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
If you’d like to mention your funding sources, please list them.
Funding from Crohn’s Colitis Canada and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research