Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Amanda Poholek, PhD, for her publication in Science Immunology titled “Tumor microenvironmental signals reshape chromatin landscapes to limit the functional potential of exhausted T cells.”
In a study published August 2, 2022, Poholek, alongside paper co-author Greg Delgoffe, PhD, and their team profiled molecular features of T cells as they progressed from early to terminal exhaustion in a mouse model of melanoma. They unexpectedly found that even the most terminally exhausted T cells retain some capacity to be functional again and identified approaches to overcome exhaustion, opening potential new avenues for cancer immunotherapy.
“People think about terminally exhausted T cells as a lost cause, that there’s no coming back from this state,” said Poholek. “But given the right circumstances — the T cell version of rest — we show that they can come back. This finding could have incredible potential for immunotherapy.”
Read the full press release on UPMC.