IMMUNE MONITORING LAB
Kathleen Gallagher, PhD
Director of the Immune Monitoring Lab
Kathleen grew up in Bath, UK and obtained her PhD from Cardiff University in Wales. She directs the Immune Monitoring Laboratory. The laboratory provides expertise to enable translational clinical studies of immune-based therapies, based on the highest standard operating systems. Assays are executed by a team of experts specializing in immune profiles of disease and analysis of immune testing and response. A cancer immune monitoring platform provides the equivalent of immune system pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, in addition to providing mechanistic data on patterns of toxicity, resistance, and efficacy. In her free time, Kathleen likes kayaking, playing music, dancing salsa and bachata and rock climbing.
Mission
The mission of the Immune Monitoring Laboratory is to provide comprehensive immune monitoring that is of high quality, innovative, and enables translational research of immune-based therapies.
Overview
The Immune Monitoring Lab (IML) is directed by Dr. Kathleen Gallagher and is a vital part of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program. The laboratory provides expertise and services for processing, storing, and analyzing patient samples, based on the highest standard operating procedures. These assays are executed by a team that specializes in immune profiles of disease and analysis of immune testing and response. The cancer immunotherapy monitoring platform they have established provides the equivalent of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics for the immune system, in addition to providing mechanistic data on patterns of toxicity, resistance, and efficacy.
Laboratory Assays
Assays performed by the Immune Monitoring Laboratory:
- Processing of peripheral blood, bone marrow, CSF and fine needle aspirates
- Storage of PBMC, BMMC, serum, plasma, CSF
- mRNA extraction, quality evaluation and storage
- DNA extraction and storage
- Quantification of cytokines and other soluble proteins in serum, plasma and CSF using ELISA or multi-plex Luminex (standard assays or customizable kits)
- Multi-color flow cytometry
- Current assays in place include T cell memory phenotyping, T-reg identification and phenotyping, CAR-T identification, quantification and phenotyping, T cell absolute counts, plasma cell PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression
- Custom assays can be developed upon request
- Nanostring bulk mRNA analysis for use in CAR-T therapy evaluation
Assays in development:
- Quantification of surface antigen expression
- ddPCR for monitoring CAR-T expansion
- T cell intracellular cytokine assays
- T cell CD107 degranulation assay