My research interests encompass studies of immunity and inflammation in the context of developing and established cancers. These research interests involve studies of inflammation in the genesis and maintenance of specific cancer types (principally breast and ovarian), as well as the impact of inflammation on tumor metastasis and the tumor microenvironment. My group is also involved in strategies to modulate the immune response to tumors, which involves the use of novel immunotherapeutic strategies and development of vaccines to specific oncogenic targets. The major focus of my lab is in uncovering strategies to modulate tumor-derived inflammation and tumor-specific immunity that will translate into clinically efficacious therapies in patients.
Education and Training
- Post Doctoral Fellow, Md Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, 2010 - 2012
- Post-Doctoral Fellow, Duke University, 2006 - 2010
- Ph.D., Duke University, 2006
In the News
Selected Grants
- Visualizing tumor heterogeneity in an immune intact and autochthonous mouse model of breast cancer
- Therapeutic targeting of breast cancer and host immune responses at inflection points in the disease trajectory
- Personalized T-cell immunity against metastatic TNBC using MAVS immunostimulation
- Mouse Paint: A massively combinatorial approach for illuminating tumor heterogeneity in True Color
- Enabling effective anti-tumor immunity from targeted antibodies through dual innate and adaptive immune checkpoint blockade in non-immunogenic cancers
- Viral Oncology Training Grant
- Beyond PD1: An immunotherapeutic strategy to stimulate and enable both T-cell and B-cell responses in immunosuppressive and non-mutated metastatic breast cancer
- Investigating the adaptive immune response to dormant tumor cells
- Detection and Elimination of Oncogenic Signaling Networks in Pre-malignant and Malignant Cells with Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Investigation of LAMP anti-tumor vaccines
- Translational Research in Surgical Oncology
- A Neoepitope Subunit Vaccine Targeting the Mutated Estrogen Receptor Ligand Binding Domain to Treat and Prevent Endocrine Resistant ER+ Breast Cancer
- Efficacy of replicon-encapsulated lipid nanoparticles for vaccination against breast cancer in vivo
- Investigation of stimulating stress response mechanisms to enhance antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis
- Mechanisms of Action and Resistance to PD-1 Immunotherapies in Breast Cancer
- Study of LAMP Vaccines in HER2+ Breast Cancer
- Immunotherapeutic Targeting of a Therapy Resistant Oncogenic HER2 Isoform
- Investigating Adaptive Immune Recognition of Dormant Disseminated Tumor Cells
- Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program