William K. Decker

Biography

 Upon detection of an inflammatory stimulus or “danger signal”, dendritic cells mature and migrate to the lymph nodes where they function by presenting antigens to CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes. These primed lymphocytes then migrate into the periphery where they seek out and destroy cells presenting the same antigens against which they were primed. The concept of providing dendritic cells to the patient for cancer therapy is meant to mimic the natural function of dendritic cells in vivo. To perform this procedure, white blood cells are removed from the patient and differentiated into dendritic cells in an ex vivo tissue culture system. Once generated, the dendritic cells are exposed to antigens derived from patient tumor cells after which they are matured and reintroduced into the patient to prime downstream immune responses. While this paradigm sounds simple in theory, it has proven highly complex in practice.

Research Interest

 dentric cell and neuro pathology