Jimmie Ye, Ph.D., Technology Impact Award Grantee University of California, San Francisco

Harnessing the power of single-cell and spatial genomics to understand how immune cells sense and respond to the tumor microenvironment is a major focus of Dr. Ye’s research. In his laboratory, he and his colleagues have initially developed XYZeq, a novel method for spatially-resolved single-cell genomics to map immune cells and their environment within the complex architecture of solid tumors. The first aim of this proposal is to improve the spatial resolution of XYZeq in order to deploy the technology to profile a broad range of tumors. The next aim is to use XYZeq to identify which T cell receptors (TCRs) are predominant in tumors and associated with an activated, tumor-killing state. This would identify TCRs that may lead to better candidates for engineering T cells which can more effectively attack solid tumors. Finally, XYZeq will be integrated with genetic screens to identify synthetic receptors and transcriptional circuits that allow engineered T cells to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
 

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