Medical School
Twin Cities
This group's research is focused on characterizing and manipulating immune responses to improve therapy for solid tumors. This project particularly emphasizes the role of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells, and includes multiple aspects of CD8+ T cell biology including antigen uptake and presentation, T cell priming, effector differentiation and function, and memory formation, mobilization, and maintenance. Specific model systems deployed include murine transplantable and genetic tumor models, derived and engineered tumor systems in mice, and collaborative IRB-approved ex vivo analysis of human patient samples. Research strategies and tools used to pursue these goals include animal husbandry, pathological and histological observation and analysis, physiological biomarker analysis, single-cell fluorescence and flow cytometric analysis, immunophenotyping of immune responses and immune subsets, and genetic and proteomic profiling through bulk-and single-cell transcriptomic and protein expression analysis. As appropriate, human and mouse tissues, cells, blood, tumor, and other organ systems are used. Current projects include evaluation of in vitro priming conditions on the in vivo maintenance and performance of adoptively transferred tumor-specific CD8+ T cells, and the application of focal tumor therapy and immunotherapy to improve immune responses to solid tumors. The researchers are currently performing single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of immune subsets in a focal tumor therapy mouse model. The overall goal of this and ongoing work is to provide novel rationale for improving the deployment of existing cancer therapeutic strategies, and to discover and advance transformative innovations for future cancer cures.