A new four-year Czech-US project granted!

A new international project, titled Exploiting Molecular Mechanisms of Natural Killer Cell Recognition for Antitumor Therapy, has been launched with funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic through the INTER-ACTION program. The collaboration between Ondřej Vaněk’s team and Dr. Grzegorz Piszczek‘s laboratory at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), NIH, USA, aims to advance the understanding of NK cell recognition at the molecular level. The project focuses on how weak protein-protein interactions determine whether NK cells recognize a target cell as healthy or decide to destroy it. The team will investigate interactions between NK cell receptors such as NKR-P1:LLT1, NKp80:AICL, and Siglec-7, 9, and 10, using advanced techniques including fluorescence microscopy, mass-sensitive particle tracking, and microfluidic diffusional size determination.

The goal of the project is to gain new insights into NK cell function in both immune surveillance and cancer immunotherapy. By studying how these receptor-ligand interactions operate in the context of the cell membrane, the research will explore how these signals could be exploited or suppressed, particularly in the case of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cells. This approach, which involves genetically engineered NK cells, is a promising direction in cancer treatment. With a focus on both molecular mechanisms and practical applications, this project has the potential to significantly improve cancer immunotherapies, offering new strategies to enhance the effectiveness of NK cell-based treatments.