Investigators

Summary

Dr. Ferris's laboratory is focused on understanding basic immunological mechanisms of the lymphocyte response to cancer,including T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, for the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches to head and neck cancers (HNC). Tumor immunotherapy and vaccine clinical trials are currently underway and new strategies are in development, focused heavily on neoadjuvant  “window of opportunity” trials. We are particularly interested in the immune response to a distinct subgroup of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas caused by human papillomavirus (HPV).  Monitoring the successful immune effects of individuals treated with immunotherapy is a major effort, using single cell transcriptomic, proteomic, spatial technologies. We are also studying tumor induced immune evasion, such as defective antigen processing/presentation and alternative immune checkpoints to subvert T lymphocyte recognition of tumors. Our studies are funded by multiple NCI R01 and SPORE grants as well as extensive collaborations with biotech and pharma to investigate mechanisms of therapeutic activity or resistance to clinically available immune-oncology (I-O) agents currently in the clinic.  Validation in animal models is a parallel effort once mechanism(s) are identified in clinical specimens of I-O treated patients.