Dr Jahn talks to ecancertv at the 1st Immunotherapy of Cancer Conference ( ITOC ) in Munich about the development of a platform for the rapid identification of high affinity T cell receptors (TCRs) of therapeutic relevance targeted to self-antigens.

This is done by combining gene expression data with valuable information on peptide processing from peptide elution studies and exploiting the immunogenicity of foreign human leukocyte antigen (HLA).

Using this platform the team successfully isolated CD20-specific TCRs which could broaden the application of immunotherapies targeted to CD20 in cases where CD20-cell surface expression is low.

Based on its general principle the developed platform could easily be adapted to target other malignancies.