New center in Phoenix set to transform immunotherapy
The Phoenix Bioscience Core will house the new Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies, shown in this artist's rendering. The center will include space for academic and research activities, as well as collaboration spaces to serve academic, research and community needs.
When she was in her 30s, Molly Cassidy was handed a death sentence.
An immunotherapy clinical trial at the University of Arizona Cancer Center helped Molly Cassidy overcome an aggressive form of head and neck cancer.
Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences
Traditional treatments failed to fight the aggressive head and neck cancer that was running rampant through her body. Doctors were out of options, until a clinical trial at the University of Arizona Health Sciences offered a glimmer of hope and, eventually, a second chance at life thanks to immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses a person's own immune system to fight cancer, while molecular therapies use drugs and other substances to target specific molecules involved in disease progression.
In Cassidy's case, she received a personalized cancer vaccine in combination with an immunotherapy drug that helps the immune system fight certain kinds of cancer, and it worked. A year after the UArizona Cancer Center clinical trial ended, there were no traces of cancer left in her body.
Researchers and physician-scientists are increasingly using precision medicine to develop new cell- and gene-based therapeutical options for diseases, building on the idea that the most effective defense against health issues is the body's natural immune system. At UArizona Health Sciences, the Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies, or CAMI, is being developed to advance knowledge of the immunology of cancers, infectious diseases and autoimmune conditions to develop novel strategies for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases.
Changing the way doctors treat disease
Michael Kuhns
Noelle Haro-Gomez/University of Arizona Health Sciences
Immunotherapy is one of the most promising approaches to cancer treatment, as it has the potential to sidestep the effects of therapies that can compromise patients' long-term health and wellness. But cancer isn't the only target researchers, including bioengineer Michael Kuhns, have in their sights.
"Bioengineers solve fundamental problems with technologies that can have many applications," said Kuhns, an associate professor in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson and member of the BIO5 Institute. "If you can make something run more efficiently in certain circumstances – for example, make T cells in the immune system more effective at combating a particular disease – then the only limit to immunotherapy is your imagination."
Kuhns' research in the Department of Immunobiology focuses on engineering chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, a relatively new type of gene therapy. He built a biomimetic five-module chimeric antigen receptor, or 5MCAR, to direct killer T cells to target and destroy autoimmune T cells. When tested in a non-obese diabetic mouse model, the 5MCAR T cells recognized and destroyed pathogenic T cells, effectively preventing Type 1 diabetes.
"This technology has clear implications for autoimmune disease, but also for cancer," said Kuhns, who serves on the 21-member CAMI Advisory Committee. "This technology emerged from basic science, is taking hold in the laboratory and is showing promise to go to the clinic. This is a prime example of what we can do."
CAMI’s connected buildings are being designed to include laboratories to support translational research, clinical research space and startup incubator space to create a synergistic environment for commercialization opportunities, as well as learning spaces dedicated to academic programs that will allow CAMI faculty and researchers to mentor and train the next generation of scientists.
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CAMI will build on UArizona Health Sciences' expertise in basic science, translational medicine and investigator-initiated clinical trials to advance immunotherapies research in four areas: cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and real-time immune system monitoring.
Other examples of potential research include identifying biomarkers for response to immunotherapy that may help determine the precise drugs to fight specific cancers in individual patients, understanding individual immune responses to autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease, and creating ways to analyze immune health at the cellular level to identify how individuals might respond to a disease and to predict their health outcomes.
Creating a biosciences innovation hub in Phoenix
CAMI will serve as the anchor for an innovation district that aims to set Phoenix apart from other emerging life sciences hubs, establishing the Phoenix Bioscience Core as a center of cell and gene therapy research, startup activity and corporate engagement. Its location is expected to facilitate strong connections with partners such as Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, the Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute, among others.
According to a recent economic impact report, CAMI is expected to attract more than 150 companies to greater Phoenix and create at least 7,500 new bioscience-related jobs and 13,000 supporting jobs.
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"We expect CAMI to be nothing short of a national biomedical research hub," said Dr. Michael D. Dake, senior vice president for UArizona Health Sciences. "CAMI will be a beacon for people who are involved in this type of research to work, collaborate and engage on the Phoenix Bioscience Core."
The research will take place in connected buildings that are being designed to include laboratories to support translational research, clinical research space and startup incubator space to create a synergistic environment for commercialization opportunities. Student education will be prioritized in learning spaces dedicated to academic programs that will allow CAMI faculty and researchers to mentor and train the next generation of scientists.
"There is not a field with more explosive growth than immunotherapy. There is rapid growth in research investment and increased formation of academic and industry partnerships around the world," Dake said during a Tomorrow is Here Lecture Series presentation in Phoenix. "My hopes are that CAMI is going to provide opportunities to accelerate the development and delivery of revolutionary treatments for the management of cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases.
"We are going to see diversification of drug classes and different types of combination therapies, delivery mechanisms and monitoring," he added. "Going forward, I think we're going to see a wide array of therapies that are going to be vastly different than any past generations ever had. Suffice it to say, in the future, pills and syringes are going to be obsolete."
Using New Economy Initiative funding provided to the University of Arizona by the state Legislature and allocated to UArizona Health Sciences, CAMI is being developed under the guidance of a 21-member advisory council of leaders from academic research, biomedical and health care industries, government organizations and corporations across the state. The center’s location in Phoenix is expected to facilitate strong connections with partners such as Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, the Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.
A version of this article originally appeared on the UArizona Health Sciences website.
