Organ transplant recipients must take lifelong immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of their transplanted organ. While lifesaving, these drugs weaken the immune system and make patients highly vulnerable to aggressive cancers, such as skin cancers. Unfortunately, the most effective modern cancer treatments—immunotherapies that activate the body’s immune cells—are too risky for transplant patients because they can trigger rejection of the donor organ. Dr. Ron Gejman’s research aims to solve this dilemma by developing a new type of personalized immune-based therapy that can safely target cancer in transplant recipients without endangering their transplant.
His approach involves collecting a patient’s own T cells, reprogramming them in the laboratory so that they resist immunosuppressive drugs, and then returning them to the patient to attack cancer cells. Using advanced base-editing technology, Dr. Gejman will modify key genes to make these T cells both drug-resistant and tumor-specific. He is also developing laboratory models using cells from transplant patients with skin cancer to test how these engineered immune cells function in realistic conditions. Together, these efforts aim to create the first T cell therapies designed specifically for immunosuppressed patients.
Dr. Gejman is a physician-scientist with deep expertise in immunology, oncology, and genetic engineering. His earlier research led to a widely used platform for mapping T cell reactivity and revealed how tumor diversity limits immune attack. Building on this foundation, his current work could transform care for transplant recipients by enabling safe, precision-engineered T cell therapies—offering powerful new options where none currently exist.
Sponsor
Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD
Projects and Grants
Precision Base-Edited T Cell Therapy in Transplant Recipients with Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma
