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Possible Internships at Heat Biologics
1. Preclinical Analysis of Immunotherapy Platforms. Heat Biologics develops cell based
immunotherapies in which a modified heat shock protein (gp96-Ig) is incorporated into
a cancer cell line of choice. These 'vaccine' cells are used to treat a range of cancer
types. In these vaccines, gp96-Ig is secreted and acts as a chaperone to the tumor
associated antigens that are present in the cancer cell line vaccine. Gp96-Ig presents
these antigens to the patient immune system via an MHC class I/CD8+ T cell activation
mechanism, thereby 'educating' the immune system to attack anything that looks
similar - i.e. the patient's tumor. We are developing a new line of vaccine therapies that
incorporate not only modified gp96-Ig, but also a number of T cell costimulatory fusion
proteins, in order to elicit an even greater immune response, that is durable, and
effective against a future challenge. An internship opportunity with Heat would allow
the candidate to develop/test new vaccines in established mouse tumor model
systems. A background in immunology is a must, as well as experience with mouse
handling and procedures (IV,IP,SC injections, dissections, etc.), cell culture, flow
cytometry, ELISA, qRT-PCR, and Western blot.
2. Clinical Analysis of Immunotherapy Platforms. Heat Biologics has 2 active clinical
programs using our initial gp96-Ig vaccine, as described above. We have a Phase 2 trial
in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and a phase Ib trial in non-small cell lung cancer
(in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's anti-PD-1 Nivolumab). The progress of
these trials is assessed largely 'in house' through the processing and analysis of patient
PBMCs and tissue biopsies. An internship opportunity with Heat would allow the
candidate to be part of a clinical program at a small biotech, where they could
contribute significantly to patient sample processing, assay development, and data
analysis. A background in immunology is a must, as well as experience with cell culture,
flow cytometry, ELISA, Elispot, qRT-PCR, and Western blot.