Harvard Medical School
The Immunobiology Laboratories at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital perform studies on the basic biology TNF superfamily receptors, with an emphasis on autoimmunity and cancer. TNFR2 identifies Treg cells with the highest potency; in human cancers TNFR2 is overexpressed in the tumor microenvironment and in autoimmunity it is under expressed on Tregs. Recent data suggests agonistic TNFR2 antibodies can be made (Science Signaling 2020). For potent TNF superfamily agonism or antagonism, the final surface structures must have either tight hexagonal networks (agonism) or larger hexagonal networks (antagonism). Humanized antibodies to TNFR2 have now been produced using this principle with broad verification of these desired structural constructs.
