Lazar Vujanovic, PhD - Immunology

Summary

As an experienced immunologist, my research focuses on understanding the complex immune and stromal interactions within the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumor microenvironment (TME). Utilizing single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), multispectral imaging, and spectral flow cytometry, I have worked to define the heterogeneity of immune responses in HNSCC and melanoma (Kürten et al., Nat Commun. 2021; Janjic et al., Front Immunol. 2022; Wang et al., JITC. 2025; Li et al., Cancer Cell. 2025). My current research focuses on investigating innate immune mechanisms that promote responsiveness or resistance to different anti-tumor therapeutic modalities, including the role of distinct NK cell subsets and myeloid cell populations in shaping anti-tumor immunity. Additionally, I study soluble TNF (solTNF) signaling in tumor-associated macrophage (TAM)-mediated resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and whether targeting solTNF can improve immunotherapy efficacy.

Beyond this, I have broad interests in TNF receptor 2 expression on tumors, serum biomarkers (arginase-1 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor) for prognosis, pathogen-specific immune responses in cancer therapy, and dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines.