Human Immunologic Monitoring Facility

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT - HUMAN IMMUNOLOGIC MONITORING FACILITY The Human Immunologic Monitoring (HIM) Facility supports the development of state-of-the-art immunologic assays for University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) investigators. In 2002, the HIM became a full CCSG Core and has been under continuous leadership direction. The primary mission of HIM is to provide technical support and expertise for the analysis of scientific endpoints pertaining to host immune responses at the interface with cancer. This includes predictive/prognostic biomarkers connected with clinical outcomes and pharmacodynamic biomarkers describing effects of immunotherapeutic interventions. Because of the complexities of the tumor-host interaction, these assays extend beyond peripheral blood-based analyses of immune cells to include molecular and histologic evaluations of the tumor microenvironment, banking of germline DNA for SNP analysis, and of stool samples for microbiome sequencing. HIM makes available to UCCCC members a broad range of state-of-the-art immunologic assays, performed under a rigorous quality control program. HIM also offers consultation regarding optimal immunologic assessment, assay development, and assistance in processing and storage of patient samples for future immunological analyses. Prospective UCCCC users are required to provide a summary of their study design, which is reviewed by HIM, in order to design the most appropriate methodology to successfully measure the endpoints of the study. In the current CCSG cycle, HIM supported 35 unique UCCCC members, with 21 federally funded peer-reviewed cancer-relevant grants, supported 57 clinical trials for analyzing the immune responses, and 35 peer reviewed publications (86% in journals with impact factor ≥ 10). Tumor microenvironment analysis is further enabled through multispectral immune fluorescence imaging, RNAscope, scRNAseq, and spatial transcriptomics. In addition to its services, HIM interfaces with the Genomics Core Facility (GCF), the Bioinformatics Core Facility (BiCF), and computational staff of the NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC), the bacterial sequencing infrastructure at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), significantly expanding the range of services provided by HIM. Overall, the specialized immunologic assays and scientific questions involved are uniquely enabled by HIM in a way not satisfied by any other facility or infrastructure entity within the University of Chicago. Therefore, HIM lies at the heart of the UCCCC’s clinical/translational effort in cancer immunotherapy and is vital for the scientific investigation of novel agents.