Construction and use of chimeric phagocytic receptors to reprogram macrophages to clear pathogenic cells by phagocytosis

Cancer has become the commonest cause of death in developed countries and new treatment modalities are needed to address the problem. Macrophages play an important role in maintaining healthy tissues by disposing of damaged cells. We have shown certain sugar receptors on the surface of macrophages are important for this role. By replacing the sugar recognition parts of these receptors with peptides recognising molecules expressed on cancer cells, we should be able to ‘reprogram’ macrophages to eat cancer cells selectively.  This project aims to do this in the laboratory before testing it in animals.