The Immunobiology Seminar Series presents: "Stressing out the Immune System in Cancer"
Presenter Details
Susan Kaech, PhD
Professor and Director, NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
Dr. Kaech aims to understand how memory T cells are produced during infection and vaccination, how they function and why they can fail to induce long-term immunity, particularly during chronic disease or cancer. Her lab has been a leader in using genetic and molecular tools to identify the genes and signaling molecules involved in generating two specific types of memory T cells, CD4 and CD8, from precursor cells during both acute and chronic viral infections. She and her team have discovered several gene networks and key molecules called cytokines that shape how memory T cells develop during a viral infection. Kaech is especially interested in how T cells are metabolically regulated, and how their specialization and function can be altered by the types of nutrients available in infected tissues or in tumors. Related to this, she seeks to learn how T cell behavior is suppressed by tumors, in order to create better therapies for cancer using the body’s own immune system—an innovative and rapidly moving field called cancer immunotherapy. Read more
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