Immunology Research

Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) is among the top immunological basic science research centers in the world and researchers focus on the study of dendritic cells, rare cells that turn on and regulate immune responses, in hopes of treating immune system diseases. BIIR scientists have been active in several key areas:

• Cancer vaccines - Baylor researchers have demonstrated that vaccination with tumor antigen-loaded dendritic cells may lead to therapeutic immunity in patients with metastatic melanoma.
• Autoimmune diseases - Studies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) revealed a fundamental role of IFN alpha in disease pathogenesis, leading to new therapeutic approaches to treatment. Baylor Research Institute, led by a team of researchers and physicians from the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), is beginning research on an HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) vaccine.
• Infectious diseases - studies first funded by a large Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract are aiming at the generation of improved vaccines against infectious agents.
• Organ transplantation - At BIIR, researchers are seeking new ways to make an organ transplant recipient's immune system tolerate and accept the engrafted organ and improve the prognosis for the patient. This includes working to identify genetic determinants that can be used to minimize the dependence on anti-rejection drugs. Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., director of BIIR, holds the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Chair in Organ Transplantation Immunology. He is often regarded as the "father" of dendritic cell technology by the international scientific community and his team has received millions of dollars worth of grants by the international scientific community.

Dr. Banchereau and his team have achieved their most recent success through aggressive development and enrollment of patients in a Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial for metastatic melanoma. When injected into patients, the antigen-loaded dendritic cells are expected to increase the patient's immune response against their own tumors, killing the cancer.

Find more information on a research study at Baylor.