Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the most common and deadly forms of kidney cancer, yet most patients gain little benefit from existing immunotherapies. These tumors are skilled at suppressing local immune activity, while current treatments that broadly activate the immune system often cause damaging inflammation in healthy tissues. Dr. Emmanuela Adjei-Sowah seeks to overcome these barriers by creating a targeted nanomedicine that awakens the body’s immune defenses specifically within the tumor—maximizing effectiveness while minimizing harm.
Her research harnesses lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to deliver a specialized RNA molecule that activates RIG-I, a protein that helps immune cells detect and eliminate cancer. To make this approach safer and more precise, Dr. Adjei-Sowah is engineering a “masked” version of the RNA that stays dormant in circulation and becomes active only once inside the tumor microenvironment. She will optimize this delivery system, then investigate how tumor-selective RIG-I activation alters the immune landscape—reviving exhausted T cells, strengthening long-term immune memory, and reducing the chance of cancer recurrence. Through advanced sequencing tools, she will identify which cells drive these beneficial effects, guiding the design of future immunotherapies.
Dr. Adjei-Sowah’s cross-disciplinary expertise in biomaterial engineering, molecular biology, and translational medicine uniquely equips her to design innovative drug delivery systems and develop next-generation immunotherapies that overcome resistance and immune evasion in cancer. By finding new ways to “heat up” cold tumors, this research could greatly expand the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy and pave the way for safer, more effective cancer treatments.
Sponsor
John Wilson, PhD
Projects and Grants
Engineering lipid nanoparticles for targeted activation of RIG-I to potentiate antitumor immunity in renal cell carcinoma
