Researchers at the University of Southampton have identified a new strategy that could strengthen how the immune system responds to cancer.

Reporting their findings in Nature Communications, the scientists describe the use of specially engineered antibodies designed to more effectively switch on T cells that are capable of destroying cancer cells.

These antibodies act by ‘grabbing’ and ‘clustering’ several immune cell receptors at once, increasing the strength of the signal that instructs T cells to attack tumors.