Immune Monitoring

Figure: ELISPOT membrane showing "spots" representing individual INF-gamma secreting lymphocytes.

This Immune Monitoring Laboratory focuses on the use of direct assays for the quantification and quality assessment of an anti-tumor T-cell activity which is crucial to the successful development of immune response-based cancer therapy.

ELISPOT membrane showing "spots" representing individual INF-gamma secreting lymphocytes. The use of the Enzyme-Linked Immunospot (ELISPOT) (Hörig et al., Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2000, 49:504-14), Cytokine Flow cytometry and Fluorescent Tetramers of HLA-A201* molecules as versatile tools for monitoring the frequency of specific CTL populations.

Studies analyzing the genetic profiles in metastatic melanoma lesions before and after treatment by fine needle aspiration biopsies using Quantitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) and by hybridizing amplified RNA to cDNA arrays will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Franco Marincola, NIH. This new methodology will give rapid and reproducible measurement of gene expression in small samples with high sensitivity, and therefore, allow us to monitor changes in gene expression patterns over the course of vaccination.