NK Cells in Cancer Immunotherapy: Successes and Challenges

Dr. Anahid Jewett, PhD, MPH, is well-known nationally and internationally for her contribution to the field of NK biology, tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. She serves on the editorial board of many prestigious journals and has been a reviewer on the board of National Institute of Health study sections. She holds several patents and has published more than 100 high impact journal articles, reviews, commentaries and book chapters in the field of cancer. Dr. Jewett’s major contributions to science and NK cell biology were the identification, characterization and the establishment of the concept of split anergy in NK cells, establishment of the role of NK cells in elimination, selection and differentiation of cancer stem cells as well as healthy stem cells, and methods to generate large numbers of super-charged NK cells which are in use currently in clinical trials of cancer patients.

1. Introduction and basic biology of NK cells2. Immunotherapy using CAR/NK with and without CAR/T3. Immunotherapy using NK cells with and without T cells and Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as well as NK/T cells4. Autologous vs allogeneic sources of NK and T cell effectors5. Reversing NK inhibitory tumor microenvironment by targeting suppressive immune effectors6. Check point inhibitors7. Combination of NK immunotherapy with chemotherapy and radiation8. NK cell immunotherapy using ADCC inducing antibodies9. Oncolytic viruses and NK cell immunotherapy10. NK cell diagnostics11. Novel cell delivery systems