Physician Investigator (Cl) Cancer Center, Mass General Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Assistant In Medicine Hematology-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital

PhD Stony Brook University 2012

MD Stony Brook University School of Medicine 2012

car t-cells; chimeric antigen receptor; ovarian cancer Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells have not been successful in the management of solid tumor malignancies. Reasons for this include; poor trafficking, the presence of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, CAR T-cell dysfunction and immune escape via antigen-loss. We are developing strategies to further modify CAR T cells to optimize their efficacy for ovarian cancer and gynecologic malignancies. Our approaches to further engineering these CAR T cells are informed by the ovarian cancer tumor microenvironment. Using syngeneic immune competent mouse models and subsequent validation in genetically engineered and xenograft models, we are able to effectively evaluate these rationally optimized CAR T cells as monotherapy or in combination with other immunomodulatory agents prior to initiation of clinical trials.