In many cancers, our immune cells are not working properly. This can involve inhospitable conditions at the site of the tumour that impairs immune cell metabolism, processes used to make energy and the tools they need to exert their functions. For instance, tumours have adopted strategies to protect themselves by turning off the metabolism of Natural Killer (NK) cells, immune cells with potent tumour killing activities. Tumours can starve NK cells of fuel and flip-off “switches” that regulate metabolism.
Professor David Finlay is the Associate Professor in Immunometabolism, at Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute in Trinity College Dublin. His research has pioneered an understanding of NK cell metabolism and we are working towards engineering NK cells that can sustain the cancer-killing functions even within the inhospitable environment of the tumour.
