Becky Richards

Focus Groups

Immunology/Immunopathology and Cancer Biology

Education

MD, Oregon Health and Science University

PhD, Oregon Health and Science University

Residency in Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Stanford University

Research Summary

Engineering next-generation CAR-T cells for blood cancers

Developing novel immunotherapies to treat AML

Research Detail

The overarching goal of the Richards lab is to advance immunotherapeutic options for pediatric cancer patients. The primary focus of the lab is developing chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells specific for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a disease that can be difficult to treat and is associated with many treatment-related toxicities. CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for patients with B cell malignancies, and is an attractive option for treatment of AML. Despite promising pre-clinical data, translation to patients has been hampered by tumor heterogeneity and the possibility of on-target, off-tumor toxicity to healthy tissues. Lab members employ next-generation engineering to endow CAR-T cells with improved tumor specificity, and seek to define mechanisms of CAR-T cell signaling and target tumor cell resistance. The use of pre-clinical models helps to identify critical components of AML tumor cell and CAR-T cell biology that will inform further clinical development.

Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/rebecca.richards.1/bibliography/public/