Alice Peng Rose Hills
Role of DUSP1 and DUSP2 in Natural Killer Cell Desensitization
Natural killer (NK) cells are essential components of the immune system, known for their ability to recognize and kill tumor cells. However, prolonged exposure to tumor cells can lead to NK cell desensitization (sometimes called “exhaustion”), which diminishes their ability to effectively target and eliminate tumors over time. My research focuses on two genes, DUSP1 and DUSP2, which have been found to be highly expressed when NK cells are desensitized. I aim to explore the role of these 2 genes to understand how they affect NK cell desensitization in order to investigate how they can be targeted to optimize tumor elimination and be harnessed for cancer therapy.
I plan to genetically modify the genome of NK cells to upregulate DUSP1 and DUSP2 and then measure the NK cell tumor-killing capacity. Additionally, I will use a mouse model to assess how these genes influence tumor elimination by measuring changes in tumor size after transferring the altered NK cells into the tumor-bearing mouse. I also plan to downregulate DUSP1 and DUSP2 in human NK cells and analyze the killing capacity of NK cells to further explore the therapeutic potential of these 2 genes.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much for supporting my summer research project! I’m excited to conduct research and dive deeper into my passion for cancer immunology. I am very grateful to have the funding and support to contribute to the critical and rapidly emerging field of cancer immunotherapy.