Submitted on August 21, 2026
UCSF Department of Urology researchers have received new support from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) for projects aimed at advancing cancer immunotherapy, including work on next-generation cancer vaccines and translational research in prostate cancer.
Peter Bruno, PhD, is the recipient of a 2026 Cancer Research Institute Technology Impact Award for his project, “Next-generation cancer vaccines through AI-guided MHC-II functional genomics.” Bruno is among five researchers selected nationally for CRI’s 2026 Technology Impact Awards, which provide seed funding for investigators developing new technologies and approaches to challenging problems in cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Bruno’s project focuses on improving cancer vaccines by better understanding how tumors activate CD4 helper T cells, which play an important role in sustaining long-term anti-cancer immunity. His team will use a high-throughput experimental platform to test tumor-derived protein fragments across common MHC class II variants. Co-PI Vasilis Ntranos, PhD, of the UCSF Diabetes Center, will lead the AI component of the grant, developing models that learn from the experimental results and improve predictions over time. The approach could enable more precise and personalized cancer vaccines designed to generate stronger, longer-lasting immune responses.
Bruno has also received a grant from the Weill Protein Design Alliance, which funds joint projects between UCSF and the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design, to collaborate with Nobel Laureate David Baker, PhD. Immune cells recognize disease by reading molecular flags displayed on the surface of cells. The two labs will use computational protein design to build synthetic versions of these flags, engineered to be stable enough to work as drugs. The goal is to switch off only the immune cells that drive disease while leaving the rest of the immune system intact, an approach Bruno's lab is pursuing for autoimmune conditions alongside its work on cancer immunotherapy.
Carissa Chu, MD, assistant professor of Urology, is a co-investigator on a Cancer Research Institute Clinical Innovator Award supporting the project, “Mechanisms of immune priming in responding patients to neoadjuvant xaluritamig in prostate cancer.” The project is led by David Oh, MD, of UCSF Urologic Oncology, and brings together investigators from UCSF, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University and Washington University in St. Louis.The research team will examine biological samples from the neoadjuvant trial to better understand the immune mechanisms associated with response to xaluritamig. CRI’s Clinical Innovator program supports investigator-led immunotherapy trials with an emphasis on understanding clinical response and identifying or validating biomarkers that can help guide future cancer treatment.
The awards highlight the breadth of immuno-oncology research underway across UCSF Urology, from developing new technologies for cancer vaccine design to translating findings from prostate cancer clinical trials into a deeper understanding of treatment response.