Conejo-Garcia Lab
Principal Investigator: Jose R Conejo-Garcia
Institution: Duke University (Durham, NC)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Abstract Aggressive malignant progression and spreading has limited a clear understanding of the pathophysiology of SCLC. The overarching goal of this “bedside to bench” project is to elucidate the role of inter-metastatic divergence in therapeutic resistance in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), with a focus on how antigenic heterogeneity and dominant immunosuppressive butyrophilins thwart protective adaptive immune responses in this disease, to develop novel interventions to overcome these hurdles. We will leverage a Rapid Tissue Donation (RTD) program established at Moofitt Cancer Center, which provides timely access to the entire repertoire of metastatic lesions in terminal patients, who generously donate their tissues for this research. Using this resource, plus CDX models routinely generated for each SCLC patient, we will define barriers that impair the effectiveness of immunotherapies. During the 5-year tenure of this grant we will generate a rationale for novel immunotherapeutic trials to overcome overcome these elusive hurdles, with a focus on antigenic heterogeneity and the role of immunosuppressive butyrophilins. Based on our expertise on tumor immunology (Dr. Conejo-Garcia)…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01CA278907-04: Inter-metastatic divergency in small cell lung cancer; implications for the design of future immunotherapies (2026)
- 5R01CA297896-02: Novel immunotherapies using optimized tumor cell-penetrating antibodies (2026)
- 4R01CA124515-20: Crosstalk between butyrophilins and gamma delta T cells in human cancer (2026)
- 1R01CA297896-01: Novel immunotherapies using optimized tumor cell-penetrating antibodies (2025)
- 5R01CA124515-19: Crosstalk between butyrophilins and gamma delta T cells in human cancer (2025)
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