I am the Research Chair and Director of Preclinical and Translational Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic Florida. The current focus of my laboratory is on epigenetic or post-translational modifiers that impact the immune system and tumor immune crosstalk to innovate cancer immunotherapy and optimize radiation therapy to harness its immunogenicity. We are devoted to understanding how methylation modulates radiation response as well as tumor immune synapse. We are also working on how histone deacetylases, Sirt2 and HDAC6, modulate acetylome in tumor and the host immune system to overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy and radiation therapy. In addition, we have conducted a series of correlative sciences to assess peripheral blood immunophenotype and tumor tissues in multiple investigator initiated clinical trials combining radiation therapy and immunotherapy to gain insight into the immunologic principals in human. As a physician-scientist, I have also been the PI of the phase II multi-institutional randomized study of Nivolumab, Ipilimumab with or without stereotactic body radiation therapy for metastatic or recurrent Merkel cell carcinoma, which has been recently published in Lancet.
Disclosures:
- Employment: none
- Compensation: AstraZeneca: Research Grants, Research Funding, Research Salary Support,Grant Research Funding-End Date: 2023 ;BMS: Research Grants, Research Funding, Research Salary Support, Grant Research Funding-End Date: 2023
- Ownership: none
- Leadership: none