A Novel Treatment Strategy to Enhance Bladder Cancer Immunotherapy via NK Cell Activation

 
This research project, led by Dr Jinhui Gao at University College London and overseen by Professor Jennifer Rohn, is exploring a promising new way to treat bladder cancer by improving the body's natural immune response. Many bladder cancers return after treatment or don't respond to immunotherapy, but this project focuses on a protein called BRD4, which may be holding back immune cells known as natural killer (NK) cells from doing their job.

By blocking BRD4, the team hopes to boost how well NK cells can find and destroy bladder cancer cells. Over the course of 12 months (from May 2025 to April 2026), the project will test different drug doses, study how cancer cells respond, fine-tune how NK cells interact with cancer cells, and measure how effectively this approach helps kill tumour cells. If successful, this research could lead to a new treatment option for patients whose cancer is hard to treat with existing therapies.

 
This project has also been awarded the ABC UK Andrew Meadows Award - given each year to a grants project which the panel considers to be of particular merit.