UCLA

The engagement of a dendritic cell with a T cell expressing a cognate T cell receptor is the defining even in the initiation of adaptive immunity against pathogens and cancer cells. The ability to understand, manipulate, and engineer T cell and dendritic cell anti-tumor immune responses is reshaping our approach to cancer therapy.

This dissertation presents research exploring two parallel avenues for enhancing anti-tumor adaptive immunity through the in vitro development of T cells and cDC1 dendritic cells from human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. While dealing with two distantly related hematopoietic lineages and their emergence from primitive progenitor cells, the common theme uniting these projects is the opportunity to more effectively engineer adaptive immunity through an improved understanding of these earliest stages of immune cell development.