Targeting ovarian cancer control of the tumor microenvironment to enhance anti-tumor immunity

Project summary

Ovarian cancers are highly heterogeneous, which means that within the same patient different tumors may exhibit different sensitivity to recognition and killing by the immune cells. We hypothesize that this heterogeneity is driven by production by cancer cells of specific secreted proteins that stimulate or inhibit recruitment of immune cells to the tumor. We developed a first-of-its-kind spatial functional genomics reporter platform that enables us to track the production of such proteins, to measure their association with surrounding immune cells and other cells, and to test how they impact immune recognition, tumor growth, and response to immunotherapies.

This grant was made possible by a generous donation from the Annette C. Pane Research Fund in memory of Annette Pane.