Scientific Director: Thomas F. Gajewski, MD, PhD
Technical Director: Yuanyuan Zha, PhD
Website: him.bsd.uchicago.edu
The Human Immunologic Monitoring (HIM) Facility provides service to clinical cancer investigators to measure immunologic endpoints and other pharmacodynamic parameters in subjects participating in clinical trials. The facility serves as a specialized laboratory to perform scientific analyses that include: 1) evaluating changes in immune response parameters in response to immunotherapeutic interventions; 2) monitoring biologic effects of other pharmacologic agents using lymphocytes or other hematopoietic cell subsets as a surrogate tissue; and 3) interfacing with the current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) Facility to carry out the preparation of clinical-grade products, such as cancer vaccines, for administration to patients.
Services
- Preparation of peptide-based cancer vaccines
- Isolation of specific cell subsets from PBMCs
- Isolation of T cell subsets from viably frozen tumor biopsies
- mRNA isolation and qRT-PCR analysis of gene expression profiling data in the tumor microenvironment
- Preparation of RNA sample from cells or tumor biopsies for microarray analysis
- Preparation of tissue samples for immunohistochemistry
- DNA, RNA, and microRNA isolation from in vitro stimulated T cells
- In vitro priming for antigen-specific CD8+ T cells
- ELISPOT for IFN-γ and other cytokines
- Peptide/tetramer or dextramer analysis
- Flow cytometry for specific T-cell subsets and activation markers
- PHA-induced T cell proliferation
- NK cell cytolytic activity
- Intracellular FACS analysis for cytokines and/or other proteins
- Protein arrays
- ELISA assays for specific factors in serum, plasma, and other body fluids
- Western blot analysis for specific signal transduction intermediates
- Data analysis, assistance in grant proposals, budget preparation
- New assay(s) development upon request
