Immunology and Cancer

Leadership
Program Leaders: Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, and Justin Kline, MD
Assistant Program Leader: Yuxuan (Phoenix) Miao, PhD
Community Research Advisor: Ramona Burress
The overall goals of the Immunology and Cancer Program are to understand the interaction between the host immune system and malignant tumors, and to manipulate that interaction to promote immune-mediated tumor destruction in patients with cancer. In recent years, tumor immunotherapy has revolutionized the way we treat some kinds of cancer.
These therapies, however, are not effective for all tumor types or all patients. Advances in our understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which the immune system fails to spontaneously reject cancer from a more global perspective will allow for innovations in immune-based therapies as well as optimization of current strategies.
Key Research Themes
- Perform basic science investigations in immunology relevant to cancer (e.g., innate immunity, lymphocyte activation and peripheral inflammation/tolerance regulation)
- Generate and interrogate preclinical mouse models of anti-tumor immunity
- Design and conduct clinical studies of human anti-tumor immunity and novel immunotherapies
Anita Chong, PhD
Marcus Clark, MD
Jill De Jong, MD
Daria Esterhazy, PhD
Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD
Tatyana Golovkina, PhD
Jun Huang, PhD
Bana Jabri, MD, PhD
Justin Kline, MD
James LaBelle, MD, PhD
Yuxuan (Phoenix) Miao, PhD
Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD
Daniel Olson, MD
Eric Pamer, MD
Peter Savage, PhD
Hans Schreiber, MD, PhD
Melody Swartz, PhD
Randy F. Sweis, MD
Jueqi Chen, PhD
Pankti Reid, MD, MPH
Samantha Riesenfeld, PhD
Lucas Berens
Filip Boskovic
Jason Bugno
Kirk Cahill
Connor Centner
Jennifer H. Cooperrider
Kunal Desai
Asim Dhungana
Ava Ferguson Bryan
Waqas Haque
Frederick M. Howard
Hannah Johnston
Alec James Kacew
Diren Arda Karaoglu
Vishesh Kothary
Youyou Li
Jason P. Meier
Nabiel A. Mir
Swetha Nakshatri
Anh Nguyen
Daniela Olivera Velarde
Sagada Penano
Monica Pomaville
Geneva Schlafly
Anna Slezak
Divya Sood
Ethan Stolen
Yu Tian
Christopher L. Valdes