Dr. Kevin Cassady and his team have identified an amino acid epitope encoded from Syndecan 4 (SDC4) that binds to a receptor protein on immunosuppressive myeloid and dendric cells called GPNMB. This group has developed a series of fusion proteins including FcGamma (Fcγ) fusions to encode the binding GPNMB-interacting domain, and shared antigens containing epitope tags. They have incorporated the fusion into virus expressed antigens to target myeloid cells in the tumor microenvironment in order to change their functional activity and enhance uptake and processing of antigens. Because SDC4 and GPNMB act as co-inhibitory molecules, they anticipate that fusion proteins will disrupt this interaction, which will enhance T cell activity and could be used as an anti-cancer immunotherapy.