"Harnessing the power of the immune system to fight malignancies remains a challenging goal although important progress has recently been achieved. For example, cancer remission of terminal leukemia patients was accomplished with genetically modified autologous T cells (Dr. June, University of Pennsylvania, 2011). However, these adoptive T cell therapies are limited by the availability of target specific T cells that are extracted from each patient, expanded ex vivo, and transferred back to the patient. To extend cancer immunotherapies to clinics, the current T cell expansion technologies need to be improved to efficiently produce the large amounts of T cells that are required. To overcome this problem we propose the development of orthogonally functionalized binary nanopatterned polymeric substrates that will act as efficient artificial ‘T cell proliferation machines’. These binary nanopatterns will consist of gold and oxide nanoparticles that will be orthogonally functionalized with either anti-CD3 or anti-CD28, which are the biomolecules that trigger T cells and activate their expansion. These substrates will introduce an unprecedented fine control in the nanoscale that will certainly contribute to the understanding of the immune processes that remain enigmatic in spite of their fundamental role in the survival of species. The OFB-SCI project proposes a truly multidisciplinary and intersectorial research in the field of Cancer Nanotechnology with a clear ambition to transfer the knowledge acquired to the industry in the near-future facilitating the introduction of novel cancer immunotherapies in clinics. Overall, this project will offer a first class training experience to a promising young European researcher, Dr. Guasch, based on a broad and challenging yet feasible program carefully embedded in a genuine interdisciplinary environment such as Prof. Spatz’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Heidelberg (Germany)."