Deciphering the T-cell receptor cancer-recognition code

Cancer Grand Challenges is a trailblazing research funding initiative taking on some of the toughest challenges in oncology by uniting a global network of oncologists. In this interview, we discuss the MATCHMAKER project with team lead Michael Birnbaum (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, MA, USA) to uncover how they're seeking to better understand and predict how T cells recognize tumors, paving the way for personalized immunotherapies. What are the main aims of the MATCHMAKERS project? The goals of MATCHMAKERs are to (first) be able to computationally predict pairings between T-cell receptor sequences from tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes with the cancer antigens they...