Understanding Immune Hubs to Improve Immunotherapy
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Our Research
Our lab studies the cellular interactions that shape immune responses in human tumors, focusing on how these responses are regulated. Using a combination of large-scale genomic analyses and tissue imaging approaches, we have identified hubs in tumor tissues where tumor cells come into close contact with immune cells. By characterizing the cells in these hubs, and the gene networks that are turned on in these cells, our lab aims to uncover novel ways to harness the immune system in the fight against cancer.
Our Partners
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Our People
We are a brand new lab located at the Gladstone Institutes in sunny Mission Bay looking for passionate students and postdoctoral fellows to join us in our mission to decode the cellular interaction networks that shape immune responses in human tumors. We are excited to grow into a cross-disciplinary, collaborative and diverse lab that includes clinicians, immunologists, geneticists, cancer researchers, and computational biologists.
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Recent Lab News
Happy First Month of the year! We started 2026 off strong by welcoming Jenny and Gilbert as our new rotation students - so great to have you both here! 🎉
Karin visited NCI for the DCB New Grantee Workshop in Bethesda, Maryland. Brrr, forgot what east coast winter feels like ❄️
Other great news - Barbara Engelhardt’s labwas published in Genome Biology! If you want to learn about a new method to identify spatial neighborhoods in spatial transcriptomics data… click me here!
We also welcomed our first seminar speaker of the year, Katy Rezvani, and attended her seminar in the auditorium. A smooth sailing seminar is always a sign of good luck for the rest of the year 🍀
In the loveliest month of the year, we cheered Amelia on during her ImmunoTEX Talks presentation! Not only did she nail the presentation (duh), but she also won the People’s Choice Award! Click on our ‘Events’ tab for proof 😉 you go girl!
The lab also bid farewell to Sosun, one of our previous GIGI admins, as she moved onto another wonderful role at Genentech! Wishing you the very best, Sosun, and we welcome you back anytime!
To top it all off, Karin and Christopher Chen received $1 million in research funding for Project CURE! Read more about it here. Congrats all around!
Karin dove straight into March by attending the 3rd Probing Human Disease using Single-Cell Technologies Conference in Cancun as an invited speaker! Staying busy… with a view, of course 🌴
The lab also attended the 1450 Owens St. Open House Event in celebration of expanding Gladstone! Check out our selfie in our ‘Events’ tab, and click here to learn more about Gladstone’s new laboratory space!
On top of our several hellos, goodbyes, and well wishes, the lab stayed busy with our GIGI supergroups, lab meetings, and seminars. A productive month to say the least 👏
Pssssst - March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Here’s your friendly reminder: go get screened! 🩺
