Rebecca (Becky) Richards
Credentials: Pediatrics
Position title: Engineering next-generation CAR-T cells for blood cancers
Email: rmrichards3@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-265-9645
Address:
WIMR 4153
1111 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Cancer Biology; Immunology
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
I am a physician-scientist and joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as faculty in 2022. The overarching goal of my research is to advance immunotherapeutic options for pediatric cancer patients. My lab focuses on developing chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells specific for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a disease that can be difficult to treat and is associated with many treatment-related toxicities. CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for patients with B cell malignancies, and is an attractive option for treatment of AML. Despite promising pre-clinical data, translation to patients has been hampered by tumor heterogeneity and the possibility of on-target, off-tumor toxicity to healthy tissues. My lab employs next-generation engineering to endow CAR-T cells with improved tumor specificity, and we seek to define mechanisms of CAR-T cell signaling and target tumor cell resistance. We will use pre-clinical models to identify critical components of AML tumor cell and CAR-T cell biology that will inform further clinical development.