The general research area of Dr. Mathew’s laboratory is Cancer Immunology. His research focuses on the Cellular and Molecular Biology of human natural killer (NK) cells and their recognition by cancer cells. NK cells are a subpopulation of lymphocytes that play an important role against cancer and various viral and bacterial infections.
Dr. Mathew is one of the pioneers who identified, cloned, and characterized several receptors expressed on human NK cells including 2B4 (CD244, SLAMF4), CS1 (CD319, SLAMF7) and LLT1 (CLEC-­2D). Research in his laboratory has identified their ligands, elucidated the signaling pathways, and also determined the transcriptional regulation of these genes in health and disease conditions. Dr. Mathew has shown that anti-­CS1 antibody activates NK cell cytotoxicity against various cancer cells. The FDA has approved a humanized anti-­CS1 mAb, Empliciti, as a breakthrough drug for multiple myeloma treatment. Thus, his research has led to the development of novel NK cell based immunotherapy for cancer. Current focus is identification of markers for cancer stem cells (CSCs) and targeting CSCs to NK cell mediated killing.