Onyi Onyeador

Program: Unspecified

Current advisor:

Undergraduate university: Washington University

Research summary
Dendritic cells initiate all tumor-reactive T-cell responses. While much is known about how to generate and test functional mouse conventional dendritic cells (cDCs), generation and characterization of functional human cDCs is poorly understood. Further, while modifying a cDC with a CAR is an appealing concept, this has not been done in human cells. Thus, during my first lab rotation in the DeSelm lab, my work will aim to characterize various human cDC protocols in terms of their ability to generate functional cDCs based on cross presentation assays using coculture of the cDCs, tumor loaded with HPV antigen, and T-cells expressing an anti-HPV TCR. Further, I aim to test a) whether these human cDCs can be modified with a CAR, and b) whether the human CAR improves the cDC’s ability to prime human tumor-reactive T-cells using the same cross-presentation assay.

Graduate publications