Compositions and methods for identifying functional anti-tumor t cell responses

A method of functionally evaluating a candidate antigen for the ability to induce a T cell response comprising:

• obtaining a test sample of blood or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from a subject having or at risk of developing a cancer or a viral infection;
• stimulating expansion of autologous T cells from the subject with the candidate antigen, said candidate antigen comprising a peptide, a protein or a minigene transfected into autologous monocytic cells;
• isolating deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the T cells;
• amplifying the T cell receptor-β (TCR-β) complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) DNA;
• determining a level of antigen-specific T cell expansion;
• comparing the level of antigen-specific T cell expansion to a level of expansion of T cells in the absence of the candidate peptide;
• determining that the candidate antigen has the ability to induce a T cell response if the level of antigen-specific T cell expansion is higher than the level of expansion of T cells in the absence of the candidate peptide.