Title:
Impaired signaling in senescing T cells: investigation of the role of reactive oxygen species using microfluidic platforms and computational modeling

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dc.contributor.advisor Kemp, Melissa L.
dc.contributor.advisor Lu, Hang
dc.contributor.author Rivet, Catherine-Aurélie
dc.contributor.committeeMember Asada, Harry
dc.contributor.committeeMember Butera, Robert
dc.contributor.committeeMember Murthy, Niren
dc.contributor.committeeMember Zhu, Cheng
dc.contributor.department Bioengineering
dc.date.accessioned 2013-09-20T12:00:15Z
dc.date.available 2013-09-20T12:00:15Z
dc.date.issued 2012-06-21
dc.description.abstract The goal of cancer immunotherapies is to boost the immune system's ability to detect tumor antigens and mount an effective anti-tumor immune response. Currently, adoptive T cell transfer therapy (ACT), the administration of ex vivo expanded autologous tumor-specific T cells, is one of the most promising immunotherapies under development; however, its efficacy has been limited so far with a mere 10% complete remission rate in the most successful clinical trials. The prolonged ex vivo culture process is a potential reason for this ineffectiveness because the transfused cells may reach replicative senescence and immunosenescence prior to patient transfer. The objective of this thesis is to offer two approaches towards an improvement of treatment efficacy. First, we generated a 'senescence metric' from the identification of biomarkers that can be used in the clinic towards predicting age and responsiveness of ex vivo expanded T cells. The second approach is to understand at the molecular level the changes that occur during ex vivo expansion to devise improved ACT protocols. In particular, we focused on the shift towards a pro-oxidizing environment and its potential effects on calcium signaling. The combined development and application of microfluidic technologies and computational models in this thesis facilitated our investigations of the phenotypic and signaling changes occurring in T cells during the progression towards immunosenescence. Our findings of altered T cell properties over long term culture provide insight for the design of future cancer immunotherapy protocols.
dc.description.degree Ph.D.
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/49020
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject T cells
dc.subject Computational modeling
dc.subject Microfluidics
dc.subject ROS
dc.subject Calcium
dc.subject Aging
dc.subject.lcsh T cells Aging
dc.subject.lcsh Cancer Immunotherapy
dc.subject.lcsh Microfluidic devices
dc.title Impaired signaling in senescing T cells: investigation of the role of reactive oxygen species using microfluidic platforms and computational modeling
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Lu, Hang
local.contributor.advisor Kemp, Melissa L.
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
local.relation.ispartofseries Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Bioengineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 01b35ad4-1638-4e11-b368-4efa529d5545
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 829416a8-1bef-4485-ba85-c0d21b797771
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
relation.isSeriesOfPublication 5db25cda-aa52-48d2-8f63-c551ef2c92f4
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