Transplantation, Tolerance, and Tumor Immunology Study Section – TTT

Topics

• Immunologic studies of transplant rejection, focusing on the immune responses to cell, tissue and organ allografts and hematopoietic stem cell transplants.
• Immune mechanisms underlying the activities of immunosuppressive drugs and therapies for the prevention of allograft rejection.
• Immunologic tolerance in solid organ and hematopoietic transplants, in small and large animal models, and in clinical studies and trials in humans.
• Immune mechanisms of development and strategies for prevention of graft vs. host disease (GVHD), including promotion of graft vs. tumor/leukemia (GVT/GVL) effects.
• Mechanisms of immune tolerance, both central and peripheral, using a variety of systems including animal models of tumor and transplantation.
• Mechanisms of immunotherapies aiming to modulate immune tolerance for transplantation and tumors.
• Immune surveillance of tumors: mechanisms of immune evasion or immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment, in both humans and animal models.
• Immunologic studies and identification of tumor associated antigens.
• Early stage development and evaluation of tumor vaccines and immune modulation strategies in animal models and non-human primates

Shared Interests and Overlaps

There are shared interests with Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Trauma (SAT) in transplantation. Applications focusing on addressing the immune responses to transplants, immune mechanisms of transplant injury, and immune modulation to improve transplantation outcomes may be reviewed by TTT. Applications proposing to study tissue and organ injury unrelated to immunology may be reviewed by SAT.

There are shared interests with Cellular Immunotherapy of Cancer (CIC) in transplantation and graft vs. host disease. Applications that focus on the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a part of cancer treatment and the immune toxicities associated with graft vs host disease may be reviewed in CIC. Applications that focus on the basic transplantation immunology and immune mechanism of development and strategies for prevention of graft vs. host disease may be reviewed in TTT; applications that include the promotion of graft vs. tumor effects may also be reviewed in TTT. 

There are shared interests with Translational Immuno-Oncology (TIO) in tumor vaccines. Applications that focus on cancer vaccines and their formulations to induce or amplify tumor-specific immunity may be reviewed in TIO. Applications that focus on immune modulation strategies of early-stage development of tumor vaccines in animal models and non-human primates may be reviewed in TTT. 

There are shared interests with Tumor Host Interactions (THI) in tumor immunology. Applications that focus on interactions between tumor cells and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, tumor immunology and immune responses to cancer may be reviewed in THI. Applications that focus on understanding immune cell functions in the context of immunotolerance, graft versus host disease (GVHD) or cancer may be reviewed in TTT.  

There are shared interests with Cellular and Molecular Immunology – A/B [Cellular and Molecular Immunology A (CMIA) /Cellular and Molecular Immunology B (CMIB)] in cellular and molecular mechanism of immune responses. Applications proposing to study molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying immune responses and tolerance in transplantation and tumors may be reviewed by TTT. Applications focusing on basic cellular and molecular studies of immune mechanisms and immune cell functions may be reviewed by CMIA or CMIB. 

There are shared interests with Innate Immunity and Inflammation (III) in the cells and mechanism of innate response and inflammation. Applications proposing to study innate immune cell function and innate immune mechanisms in relation to transplant tolerance and tumor immunity may be reviewed by TTT. Applications focusing on basic innate immune mechanisms and innate immune cell function may be reviewed by III.

There are shared interests with Hypersensitivity, Autoimmune, and Immune-Mediated Diseases (HAI) Diseases in the induction, maintenance and breaking of immune tolerance. Applications proposing to study tolerance mechanisms and autoimmunity in relation to transplantation and tumor may be reviewed by TTT. Applications focusing on studying immune tolerance for understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and prevention may be reviewed by HAI.

There are shared interests with Clinical Oncology (CONC) in immunotherapy and vaccines development. Applications that focus on cancer clinical trials using BMT or GVHD as modalities or cancer vaccine therapy may be reviewed in CONC. Applications that focus on immune tolerance including human and animal studies of immune-mediated transplant rejection and studies of tumor immunology and vaccine development may be reviewed in TTT. 

There are shared interests in vaccine efficacy and immune responses to vaccines with Vaccines Against Infectious Diseases (VID). Applications that focus on general approaches to understand and improve the performance of existing vaccines are reviewed in VID.  Applications that focus on the impact of immunosuppressive therapies on vaccine performance are reviewed in TTT.