Memarzadeh Lab
Principal Investigator: Sanaz Memarzadeh
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY We present an interdisciplinary target discovery and T-cell receptor (TCR) therapy development program focused on platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), a highly lethal disease with no effective long-term treatments or targeted therapies. Nearly all patients diagnosed with HGSOC will relapse after initial treatment. Disease recurrence within 6 months of platinum treatment is categorized as platinum-resistant HGSOC, which is highly fatal. Our strategy to develop TCR-based therapies for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer relies on unmasking the hidden diversity of cancer proteomes produced by RNA dysregulation and mRNA isoform variation. RNA dysregulation in cancer cells can produce new epitopes through the generation of novel mRNA and protein isoforms with increased cancer specificity. To identify sufficiently cancer-specific peptide targets for immunotherapy development, our proposed strategy expands beyond target discovery from somatic mutations alone. In particular, long-read RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful approach for isoform analysis and tumor antigen discovery. We propose to exploit mRNA isoform variation as a source of shared tu…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01CA287673-03: Targeting alternative isoform variation for TCR discovery in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (2026)
- 5R01CA287673-02: Targeting alternative isoform variation for TCR discovery in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (2025)
- 1R01CA287673-01A1: Targeting alternative isoform variation for TCR discovery in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (2024)
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