Barsha Dash, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow La Jolla Institute for Immunology Area of Research: All Cancers T cells of the immune system have the remarkable ability to expand in numbers and to kill infected or cancerous cells. In recent years, T cells have been successfully engineered for boosted anti-tumor function against some blood cancers in humans. However, cancers of solid organs remain especially challenging to defeat as their hostile microenvironments subvert T cell killing capacity and curtail T cell expansion, thereby imposing a state of T cell dysfunction known as ‘exhaustion’. Dr. Dash’s research aims to fortify T cells by identifying and altering the expression of genes that impart greater resilience against T cell exhaustion in solid organ tumors. Firstly, Dr. Dash will characterize the functions and understand the mechanisms of a novel molecular mediator identified in the Hogan Lab which sustains robust T cell expansion in experimental models of solid cancers. Secondly, she will use these insights as fulcrums to engineer T cells with improved function that can target, fight and kill solid tumors. Her research is expected to shed novel insights into the designs and molecular requirements for wiring T cells to become superb cancer killers in human patients. Projects and Grants Engineered NFKBID expression to improve TIL anti-tumor activity La Jolla Institute for Immunology | All Cancers | 2023 | Patrick Hogan, PhD
