Carolyn Bertozzi, "Cancer Immune Therapy Targeting the Tumor Glycocalyx"

Successful tumors are able to evade the immune system, which is otherwise capable of killing transformed cells. Therapies that prevent this evasion have become revolutionary treatments for incurable cancers. This presentation will focus on our recent work targeting immune suppressive Siglec receptors and their sialylated glycan ligands, which are abundant within the cancer glycocalyx.  We found that Siglec-ligand interactions can confer resistance to antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity mediated by monoclonal antibody cancer drugs such as Herceptin. Based on this, we designed biotherapeutic molecules termed antibody-enzyme conjugates that selectively remove sialic acids from tumor cells and render them susceptible to immune cell killing. Editing the cancer cell glycocalyx with antibody-enzyme conjugates represents a new approach to cancer immune therapy.

Carolyn Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prof. Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface glycosylation pertinent to disease states. Her lab focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, among many others.

The full-length video of Professor Bertozzi's presentation is available on the Stanford Chemistry YouTube channel.