RNA-pulsed Dendritic Cells as Vaccines for Immune Therapy of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (C01)

• Subject Area: Immunology
• Term: from 2002 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5483103

The central goal of this project is to develop a vaccine for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) based on RNA-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs). The three specific aims of the project address: 1) variance of tumor-associated antigen expression in RCCs with respect to subtype, stage and grade to assure that targeted antigens will adequately cover tumor heterogeneity; 2) development of DCs that provide dominant positive costimulation to induce better innate and adaptive effector cells; and 3) design of maturation cocktails that enable DCs to produce biologically active IL-12p70 with Th1-polarizing capacity to improve anti-tumor immunity.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 455: Viral Functions and Immunomodulation
• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Co-Applicant Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt
• Project Head: Professorin Dolores J. Schendel, Ph.D.