Kevin Quann

Summary

My longstanding goal is to establish an independent research program in the areas of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) and adoptive cell therapy for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. Currently, I am focusing my research efforts on identifying the antigenic drivers of favorable (graft-vs-leukemia; GVL) and pathogenic (graft-vs-host disease; GVHD) alloimmune responses in alloSCT. Using a novel T-cell receptor (TCR) cloning platform, I have developed a high-throughput screening system for testing alloreactive donor-derived TCRs against informatically predicted antigens to uncover T-cell specificity. Currently, I am carrying out this work in preclinical mouse models of alloSCT, but my goal is to expand this into patient samples as this has significant translational implication: knowledge of alloantigen targets can enable engineered allografts in which GVL-specific T cells are enriched and/or GVHD-inducing T cells are depleted to improve patient outcomes.

Additionally, I have a growing interest in exploring mechanisms by which high-risk leukemias and lymphomas are able to circumvent the GVL effects of alloSCT or CAR-T therapy. By better understanding means by which leukemias are able to evade T cell killing, my hope is to develop strategies for sensitizing these cancers to GVL to prevent disease relapse, as this remains a major unmet clinical need.