Here’s the basic idea behind adoptive T cell therapy: Patients
whose cancers don’t respond to conventional treatments can have some of their
own immune cells known as T cells plucked, genetically re-engineered to better
target their cancer cells, and reinserted. In recent years these treatments
have achieved dramatic early clinical successes, and there’s a lot of
excitement about them.
This excitement made adoptive T cell therapy a prime
candidate for the third annual Biology Flash Mob at the Koch Institute for
Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, which drew about 180 volunteers on
Friday morning.
We volunteers were a diverse group—by a show of hands, one
third of us worked at Koch and one third had never heard of the institute—and
several of us were only two years old.
Our Koch hosts divided us into groups of healthy cells
(green shirts), cancer cells (red shirts), T cells (blue shirts) and scientists
(purple shirts and white lab coats). After a quick rehearsal, the healthy cells
marched out and arranged themselves in the center of the quad behind the Koch.
They cheered as the T cells filed through them and kept them in line. When one
healthy cell popped a red umbrella to show that it had turned cancerous, the T
cells took their pom-poms and pummeled it into submission.
But then several healthy cells not only turned bad but hid
themselves from the T cells (as real cancer cells do all too often), the T
cells wandered around in helpless zombie fashion and dozens of other cancer
cells poured in.
Virtue triumphed, however, after the T cells hurried out to
be genetically re-engineered (fortified for battle with big foam hands). They charged
back into the mass of cancer cells, and swiftly demolished all the bad guys.
The flash mob ended with loud cheers, even from the cancer
cells. And we hoped that the cheers will keep echoing in the real world of
cancer medicine.
A video of the flash mob will be posted in coming weeks. Meanwhile, you can view the 2012 Koch flash mob, which acted out a targeted
cancer therapy technique based on nanoparticles, here.
Eric Bender is a
science writer based in Newton.
T cells
Cancer cells
Healthy cells breaking bad
Genetically modified T cells to the rescue!
Photos courtesy Koch Institute for Integrative Research on Cancer at MIT.
The flash mob crew
Photo courtesy Andrei Ivanov.
