Exploiting an immune response to alter the side effects of cancer treatment

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 biology and chemistry.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:

Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information

Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Tom Anchordoquy, Professor Dmitri Simberg, Dr Scott Tilden and Dr Madison Ricco, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the US, who are exploring how a specific immune response can potentially reduce the damage chemotherapy causes to healthy cells. By studying this innovative approach, they hope to make cancer treatments more targeted, effective and tolerable for patients

• This resource also contains interviews with Tom, Dmitri, Scott and Madison, providing insights into careers in pharmaceutical sciences.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on the team’s research, and tasks them to explore innovations in cancer treatment.

*

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!