Findings
Being able to identify targets for adoptive cell therapies is one of the first steps in developing personalized treatments for people with hard-to-treat cancers. However, predicting whether a patient will have an immune response to a particular abnormal protein caused by mutations that serves as a new antigen (neoantigen), can be challenging. Using an ultra-sensitive and high-throughput isolation technology (termed imPACT Isolation Technology®) designed to isolate neoepitope specific T-cells, UCLA researchers were able to characterize and identify the neoantigens driving the antitumor responses in a patient treated with anti-PD-1 blockade and isolate the T cell receptors responsible for such effect.