Damon Runyon Researchers

Recent advances in genomic and proteomic technologies have ushered in a new era of antigen-specific immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines. Such therapies depend upon immune system recognition and processing of antigens-proteins or fragments of proteins displayed on the cancer cell surface. However, our understanding of the principles that govern antigen presentation across cell types throughout the tumor microenvironment (TME) remains limited. Dr. Jaeger's [William Raveis Charitable Fund Innovator] research uses sophisticated mouse models to understand how cells present and process antigens in healthy lung tissue and the lung cancer TME. These studies will advance our understanding of how different patterns of antigen presentation activate different T cell pathways and identify opportunities to engineer next-generation immunotherapies. The fundamental insights gained from these studies will be broadly applicable to multiple cancer types.