Laura Evgin

Assistant Professor
Scientist, Genome Sciences Department, BC Cancer Research

Dr Evgin’s research interests lie within the emerging and promising field of cancer biotherapeutics and focus on the development of CAR T and oncolytic viro-immunotherapies. The main goal of her research program is to better understand how CAR T treatment is shaped by therapeutic or adventitious infections, and to use genetic engineering strategies such as CRIPSR-Cas9 to edit CAR T cells to optimally perform in combination with oncolytic viruses.

Project 1. Genetic engineering of CAR T cells to be inflammation resistant

Project 2. Utilization of the TCR specificity of CAR T cells to amplify therapeutic potential

Publications

Evgin L, Huff AL, Wongthida P, Thompson J, Kottke T, Tonne J, Schuelke M, Ayasoufi K, Driscoll CB, Shim KG, Reynolds P, Monie DD, Johnson AJ, Coffey M, Young SL, Archer G, Sampson J, Pulido J, Perez LS, Vile R. Oncolytic virus-derived type I interferon restricts CAR T cell therapy. Nat Commun. 2020 Jun 24;11(1):3187. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17011-z. PubMed PMID: 32581235; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7314766.

Driscoll CB, Schuelke MR, Kottke T, Thompson JM, Wongthida P, Tonne JM, Huff AL, Miller A, Shim KG, Molan A, Wetmore C, Selby P, Samson A, Harrington K, Pandha H, Melcher A, Pulido JS, Harris R, Evgin L, Vile RG. APOBEC3B-mediated corruption of the tumor cell immunopeptidome induces heteroclitic neoepitopes for cancer immunotherapy. Nat Commun. 2020 Feb 7;11(1):790. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14568-7. PubMed PMID: 32034147; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7005822.

Evgin L, Huff AL, Kottke T, Thompson J, Molan AM, Driscoll CB, Schuelke M, Shim KG, Wongthida P, Ilett EJ, Smith KK, Harris RS, Coffey M, Pulido JS, Pandha H, Selby PJ, Harrington KJ, Melcher A, Vile RG. Suboptimal T-cell Therapy Drives a Tumor Cell Mutator Phenotype That Promotes Escape from First-Line Treatment. Cancer Immunol Res. 2019 May;7(5):828-840. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-18-0013. Epub 2019 Apr 2. PubMed PMID: 30940643; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7003288.

Forbes NS, Coffin RS, Deng L, Evgin L, Fiering S, Giacalone M, Gravekamp C, Gulley JL, Gunn H, Hoffman RM, Kaur B, Liu K, Lyerly HK, Marciscano AE, Moradian E, Ruppel S, Saltzman DA, Tattersall PJ, Thorne S, Vile RG, Zhang HH, Zhou S, McFadden G. White paper on microbial anti-cancer therapy and prevention. J Immunother Cancer. 2018 Aug 6;6(1):78. doi: 10.1186/s40425-018-0381-3. Review. PubMed PMID: 30081947; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6091193.

Evgin L, Ilkow CS, Bourgeois-Daigneault MC, de Souza CT, Stubbert L, Huh MS, Jennings VA, Marguerie M, Acuna SA, Keller BA, Lefebvre C, Falls T, Le Boeuf F, Auer RA, Lambris JD, McCart JA, Stojdl DF, Bell JC. Complement inhibition enables tumor delivery of LCMV glycoprotein pseudotyped viruses in the presence of antiviral antibodies. Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2016;3:16027. doi: 10.1038/mto.2016.27. eCollection 2016. PubMed PMID: 27909702; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5111574.

Evgin L, Acuna SA, Tanese de Souza C, Marguerie M, Lemay CG, Ilkow CS, Findlay CS, Falls T, Parato KA, Hanwell D, Goldstein A, Lopez R, Lafrance S, Breitbach CJ, Kirn D, Atkins H, Auer RC, Thurman JM, Stahl GL, Lambris JD, Bell JC, McCart JA. Complement inhibition prevents oncolytic vaccinia virus neutralization in immune humans and cynomolgus macaques. Mol Ther. 2015 Jun;23(6):1066-1076. doi: 10.1038/mt.2015.49. Epub 2015 Mar 25. PubMed PMID: 25807289; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4817751.

Breitbach CJ, Burke J, Jonker D, Stephenson J, Haas AR, Chow LQ, Nieva J, Hwang TH, Moon A, Patt R, Pelusio A, Le Boeuf F, Burns J, Evgin L, De Silva N, Cvancic S, Robertson T, Je JE, Lee YS, Parato K, Diallo JS, Fenster A, Daneshmand M, Bell JC, Kirn DH. Intravenous delivery of a multi-mechanistic cancer-targeted oncolytic poxvirus in humans. Nature. 2011 Aug 31;477(7362):99-102. doi: 10.1038/nature10358. PubMed PMID: 21886163.

Dr Laura Evgin completed her PhD in the lab of Dr. John Bell at the University of Ottawa (2015) where she studied how neutralizing antibodies and complement limit the systemic delivery of oncolytic viruses. Building on her virotherapy expertise, she moved to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to undertake a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Richard Vile where she evaluated how oncolytic viruses (OVs) can be used to amplify the reach of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T cells. As part of this work, she characterized how OVs generate tumor microenvironmental changes which are both helpful and deleterious to CAR T therapy.