The Immunology Center of Georgia at Augusta University has received its first Ignite grant, a program designed to accelerate translational research and foster collaboration between faculty and trainees. The initial award will support a project aimed at enhancing chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy, an immunotherapy that engineers patients’ T lymphocytes to target cancer cells.
The project is led by Gang Zhou, PhD, head of the Georgia Cancer Center’s Cancer Immunology, Inflammation, & Tolerance Program; Huidong Shi, PhD, affiliated with IMMCG; and Ogacheko Okoko, PhD, a recent graduate now working as a postdoctoral fellow in Zhou’s lab.
CAR-T therapy has been effective against some blood cancers but less so for solid tumors. The team plans to test a modified form of STAT5—a transcription factor important for T cell survival and function—to develop more durable CAR-T treatments.
“In our previous preclinical studies, we demonstrated that mouse T cells engineered to express a constitutively active form of STAT5 could persist long-term in living organisms and maintain strong anti-tumor activity,” said Okoko. “The Ignite grant will allow us to extend this approach to human T cells, with the goal of advancing it toward clinical application.”
Zhou noted that their research could impact both existing FDA-approved CAR-T therapies and those still under development. “In the near term, this work could improve outcomes for patients with B-cell lymphoma receiving CD19-targeted CAR-T therapies, where relapse remains a major challenge,” he said. “In the longer term, it could provide new tools to expand CAR-T therapy’s reach into solid tumors, where success has so far been much more limited.”
“Our ultimate goal is to engineer T cells that not only survive longer but also remain highly functional, giving patients more durable protection against their disease,” Zhou added.
Ignite was launched in 2024 through IMMCG to help trainees prepare grant applications for the Georgia Research Alliance’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship program. This initiative offers early-stage funding and guidance. Recipients can seek further grants from GRA while continuing mentorship from both IMMCG and GRA as they work toward moving discoveries from lab research into practical use.
“The work coming out of Dr. Zhou’s lab is a fresh and exciting approach to improving how engineered immune cells fight cancer,” said Justin Burns, PhD, vice president for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Georgia Research Alliance. “GRA’s initial grant will help the team take the next critical steps to refine the technology and move it closer to real-world use.”
IMMCG co-directors Catherine “Lynn” Hedrick, PhD, and Klaus Ley, MD—both among Augusta University’s eight GRA Eminent Scholars—highlighted how this award reflects their vision for Ignite.
“This award is exactly what we envisioned when we launched Ignite, with trainees and faculty working side by side on transformative science,” Ley said. “It’s also a wonderful example of our ongoing partnership with GRA, which is helping put Augusta University on the map in biotechnology and translational research.”
Okoko expressed enthusiasm about being part of this milestone: “Ignite gives us a unique opportunity to translate our ideas into plausible clinical outcomes. Being the first recipients here at Augusta University is exciting. We see this as a chance not just to advance cancer therapeutics but also to highlight the innovation happening on our campus.”
Ley emphasized that continued investment would be necessary for Ignite’s growth: “To grow Ignite, we’ll need more venture-focused funding streams that support early, high-risk, high-reward science,” he said. “These kinds of bold translational ideas can ultimately fuel breakthroughs in patient care and economic growth in Georgia.”
