Jimeno Lab
Principal Investigator: Antonio Jimeno
Institution: University of Colorado Anschutz (Aurora, CO)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
SUMMARY. The programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) drives immune escape in head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC), whose incidence is rising due to human papillomavirus (HPV). PD-1 inhibitors (PD-1i) are in use in many cancers including both resectable HPV-neg and recurrent/metastatic (R/M) HPV-pos and -neg HSNCC, but most patients do not respond. Limitations in studying immunotherapy include the scarcity of models providing key aspects of human adaptive immunity, such as 1) systems where the tumor and immune system are partially or fully matched, and 2) thymic education necessary for T cell recognition to occur. In recently reported work we reprogrammed peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from melanoma and HNSCC patients into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Next, we developed a novel protocol to differentiate patient iPSCs into functional isogenic multicellular stem cell derived thymic organoids (sTOs) by combining TEPs, mesenchymal cells and hematopoietic lymphoid progenitor cells generated from the same iPSC line. sTOs can educate developing T cells, both via positive and negative selection. The key advantage of sTOs is tha…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01DE036354-01A1: Developing autologous organoid and humanized mouse models with thymic T cell education capacity to test head and neck cancer immunotherapy (2026)
- 5R01CA149456-12: Targeting PD-L1 interactome signaling to enhance immunotherapy efficacy in head and neck squamous cell cancer (2026)
- 2R01CA149456-11A1: Targeting PD-L1 interactome signaling to enhance immunotherapy efficacy in head and neck squamous cell cancer (2025)
- 5R01DE030683-05: Targeting oncogenic Myb fusions in salivary gland cancer with the elongation inhibitor SVC112 (2025)
- 3P50CA261605-05S1: Colorado Head and Neck Cancer SPORE (2025)
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