Using microbiome-derived small molecules to augment cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a revolutionary strategy to treat cancer, but widespread adoption is currently limited by a lack of efficacy for many cancer types and low response rates. In preliminary work, we discovered that some microbiome-derived small molecules may boost the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy, by making cancer cells more susceptible to killing by immune cells. In this work, we propose to test this possibility using both cell-based models of immune cell-mediated cytotoxicity and mouse models of cancer immunotherapy. Our work may identify diagnostics to predict response rates in patients and therapeutic options to broaden the scope and increase the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.