Translational Molecular Pathology Immunoprofiling Laboratory

The Translational Molecular Pathology Immunoprofiling Laboratory (TMP-IL) is a highly specialized platform dedicated to immune-related cancer biomarker research for translational studies and clinical trials. Our goal is to facilitate the design of innovative clinical trials, to analyze tissue, blood another fluids-based related cancer immune-related markers in clinical trials related samples. TMP-IL works in collaboration with multidisciplinary MD Anderson clinical and translational investigators for immunology, pathology and genomic assays.

We address the scientific questions of collaborators based on needs:

• Provide pathology, immunology expertise and state-of the art technologies for biomarker development
• Provide scientific and technical expertise to assess the choice of sample, assay and platform for immune-related cancer biomarkers
• Provide standard operating procedures, guidelines and pipelines for collection, processing and handling of high-quality patient specimens for immune-related cancer biomarker analysis
• Perform research immune cancer biomarker assays for investigators using both standard and novel platforms for correlative studies in translational and clinical trial research that contribute to state-of-the-art phenotypic, and functional characterizations of response/resistance/toxicity in patients treated with immunotherapy
• Develop innovation data integration and analytical approaches and provide data management systems and analytic tools for reporting research assay data to investigators.

We work closely with the APOLLO platform and collaborate with principal investigators to understand project needs and objectives, develop an experimental strategy and provide regular updates on progress. Additionally, we assist our collaborators with grant proposal submissions by providing support in assay selection and justification. Our expertise encompasses a comprehensive list of immunoprofiling assays including digital pathology imaging, immunology techniques, high-plex technologies and spatial transcriptomics approaches.

TMP-IL is highly involved in the immune monitoring of innovative clinical trials across MD Anderson’s continuum including the Strategic Alliances program (Strategic Industry Ventures) and collaborations with CTMC+ (a joint venture between MD Anderson and Resilience) as well as through investigator-initiated studies accelerating the pace of biomarker discovery. Furthermore, the platform supports institutional initiatives such as Patient Mosaic, STRIDE and Break Through Cancer.

TMP-IL has gained national recognition through its role as a Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Center (CIMAC).