Jesse Boumelha, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Area of Research: Colorectal Cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed cancer worldwide and is becoming increasingly prevalent in younger adults. Despite improvements in systemic treatments, the 5-year survival rate for patients with metastatic CRC is less than 20%. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) which acts to boost the ability of the immune system to destroy cancer cells has demonstrated striking clinical benefits for a range of solid tumor types, however the majority of CRC patients do not respond to this type of therapy. There is an urgent need for further research into how immune responses become dysregulated in CRC in order to identify new rational therapeutic strategies. Effective immune responses against cancer primarily rely on cytotoxic T cells which can directly kill cancer cells and are re-invigorated by ICB. However, the generation of cytotoxic T cells is tightly regulated by other immune cells including macrophages and dendritic cells – collectively termed myeloid cells. Current therapeutic strategies to broadly target myeloid cells have so far yielded limited clinical benefits. Dr. Boumelha will combine next-generation immune profiling of human and mouse CRC tumors with functional studies to gain a mechanistic understanding of the role myeloid cells play in regulating immune responses in cancer. This research will be leveraged to develop more precise therapeutic interventions targeting specific myeloid cell subsets that will enhance immune responses in CRC and are likely to have clinical benefits. Dr. Boumelha is supported by the CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship to Promote Racial Diversity. Projects and Grants Targeting myeloid suppressive programs to overcome immunotherapy resistance in colorectal cancer Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Colorectal Cancer | 2025 | Miriam Merad, MD, PhD
