Research

Our laboratory focuses on Natural Killer (NK) cell biology and therapeutics, as well as leukemia/lymphoma genomics and immunotherapy.

NK Cell Biology

NK cells are innate lymphoid cells that are important for defense against pathogens, and mediate anti-tumor immune responses.  Basic NK cell biology projects seek to advance our fundamental knowledge of how NK cells develop, mature, and function.  These studies will provide insight into how NK cells play role in thwarting both infectious diseases and malignant transformation.

NK Cell Translational Research and Therapeutics

Translational research bridges and integrates basic biology and clinical therapeutics.  Our goal is to take new findings about how NK cells work and apply them in pre-clinical or clinical studies.  We also investigate NK cell numbers, phenotype, and function in correlative immunology studies from patients being treated on clinical trials.  This allows us to better understand how immune or cellular therapies work (mechanism of action), and how to improve the next clinical trial design.  Currently, our focus is on cytokine-based therapies to enhance how NK cells from a patient or donor attack and destroy cancer cells.

Lymphoma Genomics and Immunotherapy

Lymphoma is a cancer of immune cells, most commonly B cells.  We collaborate with the Washington University lymphoma clinical team and The Genome Institute at Washington University to use next-generation sequencing to identify novel mutations in lymphoma patients, and correlate these mutations with clinical outcomes.  In addition, we have an active translational immunotherapy program seeking to develop and test new strategies to use the patient’s own immune system to treat lymphoma.