진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

New therapies that promote anti-tumor immunity have been developed over the last decade, most of which have focused on enhancing T cell responses. However, harnessing innate immunity is emerging as a promising strategy to improve the efficacy of cancer treatment and to overcome resistance to current T cell–targeted immunotherapies. In particular, exploiting NK cells in cancer patients offers the dual advantage of directly eliminating tumor cells and contributing to a coordinated multicellular immune response against the tumor. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have transformed the treatment of B cell malignancies, yet their broader implementation is constrained by complex manufacturing procedures and the requirement for lymphodepleting chemotherapy, which together limit patient access.

Here, we propose an in vivo engineering strategy based on targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNPs) for the delivery of messenger RNA to specific NK cell populations. These novel tLNPs are designed to safely and preferentially modify human NK cells in vivo, thereby generating functional CAR NK cells capable of specifically recognizing and killing tumor cells. To achieve selective tumor targeting, we will evaluate several tLNP formulations incorporating mRNAs encoding molecules that target tumor antigens. These tLNPs will be assessed in vitro using human PBMCs and in vivo in murine tumor models in order to characterize their efficacy and safety profiles.