Cancer occurs when there is a malfunction in the immune system.  The immune response is triggered by white blood cells.  Monocytes are one of the important types of cells in cancer therapy as they search the body for anything out of place. 

Our focus in this facility will be on the type of monocyte called a dendritic cell.  When dendritic cells encounter cancer in the body, they break down the cancer and use its antigens to alert the immune system so the body can fight the cancer. 

Our goal is to create a dendritic cell vaccine that will allow us to remove a patient’s dendritic cells, grow them, expose them to the patient’s cancer cells to activate the cancer fighting properties, then re-infuse them to stimulate the patient’s own immune system to kill the cancer.