Lei S. Qi, Ph.D.

Research

My lab is developing new approaches for programming immune cells to recognize and destroy tumors. A major hallmark of cancer cells is their extraordinary ability to evade detection and elimination by the immune system. For example, many cancer cells coat themselves in a protein called CD47, which, when encountered by immune cells, shuts down their defense mechanism—thus protecting the malignant cells from getting destroyed. Combining protein and genome engineering, I will generate enhanced immune cells with a special protein that, when encountered by CD47 on a cancer cell, creates a signal to switch immune defenses on, allowing the immune cell to engulf and kill the cancer cell. Notably, this system can be customized to recognize cancer-specific markers for diverse tumor types and to activate different kinds of immune responses. The work represents a novel method for designing and manufacturing cell-based immunotherapies against a variety of human cancers.