Dr Russo first started studying cancer looking specifically at tumour immunology and immunotherapy. He hopes to make a difference to the quality of life of cancer patients, and wants to use the new knowledge we can learn through discovery research to find new treatments for cancer patients. Outside of the lab, Dr Russo enjoys playing tennis and the guitar, as well as reading philosophy books.

Adoptive T cell therapy works by harnessing the power of immune cells called T cells (also called T lymphocytes), which naturally work to fight disease in our body. Some types of this therapy work by simply making more of our T cells, others are more complex and involve genetically engineering the T cells to improve how they work.

Dr Russo and his team recently discovered that T cells can last a long time in the body and can hold ‘memory’ to help kill fight cancer cells. We don’t yet know much about what these cells need to function properly, however Dr Russo has found that altering how cholesterol is used in the microenvironment of the tumour can help to generate more of these memory T cells – ones that can fight tumours better.

For this project, the researchers hope to build on this finding and work out why manipulating cholesterol boosts the anti-tumour abilities of these T cells. By uncovering this new information, they could identify new ways to target the T cells and boost their anti-tumour abilities, and ultimately improve the quality of life of cancer patients.