The Breast Immunology Laboratory is newly established at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, as part of an initiative to be the preeminent breast tumor immunology/immunotherapy program in the country. Our laboratory will bridge the clinical breast oncology program with the basic and translation breast cancer immunology laboratory efforts at Dana-Farber under the supervision of the new Director of the Breast Immuno-Oncology Program, Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD and the Director of the Breast Immunology Laboratory, Jennifer Guerriero, PhD. The laboratory will have a high priority on understanding resistance to T-cell immunotherapy, identification of novel immunotherapy targets, linking pre-clinical work to clinical trials, correlating clinical trial outcomes with changes in the tumor microenvironment and analyzing human tumors to inform pre-clinical work. The laboratory will have an emphasis on translating laboratory findings into clinical trials. Our major goal is to understand the complex breast tumor microenvironment to design/develop new therapies to enhance patient care. We work closely with the outstanding basic scientists, translational researchers and clinical trialists across the Harvard system to advance the science of our basic investigators to the clinic, then take observations/specimens from the clinic back to the laboratory.
Some of our major projects include:
Targeting ESR1 Mutations in Estrogen Receptor (ER)-Positive Breast Cancer with Vaccination Funding: The Parker Institute for Cancer Therapy The major goals are to identify ESR1 mutations that can be targeted by vaccination to eliminate ESR1 mutant clones, restoring sensitivity to endocrine therapy.
Harnessing macrophages in advanced breast cancer to combat drug resistance Funding: Susan G. Komen The major goals are to harness tumor associated macrophages to overcome drug resistance in triple negative breast cancer.
Mapping the diversity of tumor macrophages in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) using single cell analysis Funding: U54 (Overall PI: Peter Sorger) The overall goals are to characterize the diversity and function of tumor associated macrophages using single cell approaches including single cell RNA-seq and tissue based CyCIF.
We are engaged in research with several major pharmaceutical companies to 1) Develop or characterize novel therapeutic strategies for breast cancer; and 2) Analyze clinical specimens from before treatment, after treatment, and during resistance, to determine mechanisms of resistance to therapy.