Understanding tumour immune responses in triple-negative breast cancer

Dr Chen's grant is funded by Cure Cancer

He is based at Monash University.

Dr Chen Li completed his PhD under the supervision of A/Profs Ashley Buckle and Jiangning Song at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University in 2016, where he focused on developing bioinformatic algorithms and databases for analysing the relationship between protein structure, function and disease.

After completing his PhD study, he moved to the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute as a research bioinformatician, and now works in the Purcell Lab at Monash University as a senior bioinformatician. His research focuses on systems immunopeptidomics, personalised medicine, and bioinformatics.

Immunotherapy and triple-negative breast cancer

“Antigen-based immunotherapy has shown promising effects in treating different types of cancers,” says Dr Chen. “But there is currently no clinically available immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer patients. The outcomes of this pioneering project will serve as an important step towards a better understanding of altered protein complexes and their contributions to the development of triple-negative breast cancer.”

Dr Chen Li's research

Immunotherapy is one of the most effective treatments against cancer, but unfortunately, it is still highly dependent on each patient’s immune responses. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the immune interactions with the cancer in question is required.

Dr Chen Li’s study looks at triple-negative breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that has poor response to current immunotherapies.  

The immune system works by rolling over cells and touching the antigens that cells express, which help tell the immune cells whether the cells are problematic. One of the ways that cancer evades immune surveillance is by presenting antigens that are not recognised as a problem. 

One approach in immunotherapies is to modify the antigens that are presented by the cancerous cells, to act as a target for the immunotherapy. Currently, the mechanisms that regulate and mediate antigen presentation in triple-negative breast cancer are poorly understood. 

Chen’s team has found that when stimulated by cytokines (a type of signalling protein), triple-negative breast cancer expressed a different set of antigens. Chen hopes to examine the differences between these stimulated and unstimulated cells, and the underlying protein complexes that generate the differences. He will use a computational approach that will sort through the proteomic* and transcriptomic** datasets to identify altered protein complexes that are implicated in triple-negative breast cancer. He will then validate these experiments using patient samples to see if the predicted protein complexes exist.

Findings from this project could result in new ways to diagnose triple-negative breast cancer in its early stages, and identify new treatment methods.

*Proteomics:  The study of proteins, including what they are and how they work in relation to other cells. 

 **Transcriptomics: The study of RNA, including how active genes are in different cells.

The importance of funding

”It’s very challenging for early-career researchers, especially bioinformaticians, to obtain funding,” says Dr Chen. “Sadly, I have seen a number of talented bioinformaticians leave academia because of this.”

“As a bioinformatician, I deeply understand the importance of integrating both computational and experimental techniques to tackle critical questions, such as cancer immunotherapy. This Cure Cancer funding provides me with an excellent opportunity to gain training in a world-class environment, and become a world-leading computational and systems biologist in cancer immunology and personalised medicine. In the long term, I hope to play an important part in strengthening cancer treatment and health care here in Australia.”

“I always believe that science should be used for social good, and I truly I believe that I can use my skills to push the boundaries of immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

Together, we can cure cancer.

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