Profiling of the colorectal tumor (CRC) immune microenvironment (TME) to identify novel therapeutic opportunities and biomarkers

Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is an existing therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer. Whereas immune checkpoint blockade has been used successfulle for a variety of tumor types, only a small portion of colorectal tumors can be treated with this approach. Therefore, cellular composition and molecular features of ICI-therapy responsive and resistant colorectal tumors is important to understand the underlying mechanisms. We propose to study colorectal tumors with a single cell perspective, with a resolution which has not been achieved before with conventional bulk sequencing approaches. Resolving cell types and states as well as molecular mechanisms behind immune evasion will enable the development of novel ICI-treatment approaches for the currently resistant colorectal tumors.