Researcher Spotlight: Shelby Sloan, PhD

The Ohio State University

Classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cHL) is one of the
most common lymphomas in adolescents and young adults. Many patients are cured with current frontline chemotherapy, but there remains a small subset who relapse or are refractory to initial treatment. Dr. Sloan’s research focuses on the development of a novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that targets a protein found on the surface of both cHL tumor cells as well as immune cells found around the tumor. “These defective immune cells surrounding the tumor block the body’s natural immune response and hinder their ability to eliminate the cancer cells,” she explains. “We think that by targeting both cell types with our engineered T-cell therapy, we can remove the immunosuppressive shield and allow the CAR T cells greater access to eliminate the cHL cells.”

Dr. Sloan completed her graduate work at Ohio State University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in immunology and hematology. With the support of the Foundation, she hopes to develop a robust clinical research program focused on improving outcomes for young people with lymphoma. As she looks toward the future of lymphoma treatment, she is most excited about the potential of cellular and targeted immunotherapies. “I think there is great potential for the treatment of cancer by harnessing the power of the body’s naturally evolved cancer detection and elimination tactics,” she explains. “If we can understand why the immune system has failed to detect and eliminate lymphomas, we can engineer personalized targeted therapies to enhance or retrain the immune system to recognize cancer cells.”