Characterization of Natural Killer cells in Prostate Cancer and Therapeutic Interventions

This project aims at developing an off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapy product via generating designer Natural Killer (NK) cells, with improved activity against solid tumours. Prostate cancer tissue samples will be utilized to understand the ligand expression profiles of cancer cells and receptor expression profiles of circulatory and tumour infiltrating NK cells. Further, the inflammasome pathway of prostate cancer cells will be activated to transform immunologically cold tumour into immunologically hot tumour. Disrupting the oxygen sensor can facilitate production of NK cells resilient against hypoxic environment of solid tumours. Further, metabolic rewiring of the NK cells via altering the lysosomal-mitochondrial dynamics, is expected to improve their anti-cancer activity.