Project Grant R01CA300077

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute received a $737,082 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) on May 13, 2026, with a completion date of April 30, 2031. The grant supports the development of bioinspired virus-like nanovaccines designed to enhance both Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy and endogenous T cell responses against solid tumors with antigen heterogeneity. The research focuses on creating an autologous tumor cell membrane-coated dual CAR and endogenous T cell boosting virus-like nanoparticle vaccine (DTVLP-VAX) that displays tumor-associated antigens and peptide-major histocompatibility complexes to overcome the clinical challenge of antigen escape in solid tumor treatment.

The project addresses a significant limitation in current CAR T cell therapy, which has achieved FDA approval for hematological cancers but demonstrated disappointing results in solid tumors due to antigen heterogeneity. Building on prior published findings demonstrating vaccine-induced antigen spreading and enhanced CAR T cell functionality, this initiative aims to develop an improved nanoparticle vaccine platform that stimulates broader polyclonal T cell responses against multiple tumor antigens simultaneously, thereby enhancing long-term tumor control in patients whose tumors exhibit diverse antigen expression patterns.