We have ongoing research activities in the following areas:
Determinants of Immunotherapy Response and Resistance in Colorectal Cancer A primary focus of our lab is to study the tumor microenvironment in colorectal cancer and the cell types, oncomicrobes,and molecular pathways that mediate immunotherapy resistance in this disease. To this end, we use a multitude of approaches including immunogenomic, microbiomic and pathologic analyses of specimens from patients with colorectal cancer, characterizing the human colorectal atlas at single-cell level resolution and generating patient-derived organoid models for functional studies. Our research efforts are enhanced by translational studies on biospecimens from patients with colorectal cancer receiving immunotherapies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Metabolomic Adaptations of Malignancies to Immunotherapies An area of interest in our group is how metabolic mediators may impact response to immune checkpoint inhibition in gastrointestinal and other malignancies. We have partnered with clinical and biopharmaceutical company collaborators to analyze biospecimens procured from patients with a variery of tumor types receiving immunotherapies in order to identify novel predictors of response and design novel immunotherapy combination trials.