EIPM Seminar Series: Anna S. Tocheva, Ph.D. - "Oncogenic signatures of tumor sensitivity and resistance to IFN-gamma"

We leverage patient-derived 3D organoid models from different cancers, which reproduce the oncogenic programs of human tumors, to reveal cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying tumor-intrinsic sensitivity to IFNg. The talk will address: How intratumoral genetic heterogeneity influences sensitivity to IFNg signaling.How intratumoral genetic heterogeneity influences the expression of IFNg-induced and therapeutically relevant immune checkpoints and soluble mediators. Such insights are key to the development of combination treatments targeting immune checkpoint ligands and tumor-specific vulnerabilities.Given the critical role of IFNg in antitumor immunity, we address how tissue-specific and tumor-intrinsic differences must be considered to identify targetable immunophenotypes and underlying molecular cascades that influence IFNg responsivity and ICB efficacy.About Dr. Anna S. Tocheva: My laboratory integrates cellular and molecular immunological assays with high-throughput proteomic and genomic approaches to study the signaling pathways triggered by immune checkpoints in human T cells. In parallel, we develop scalable approaches that incorporate cancer patient-derived organoids with reconstituted immune cells allowing us to translate these fundamental immunobiology discoveries into functional pre-clinical immunoassays to identify mono- and combination immunotherapies that augment anti-tumor T cell responses. — Anna S. Tocheva, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai