Fan Lab
Principal Investigator: Yi Fan
Institution: University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Project Summary The overarching goal of this project is to develop innovative and efficient immunomodulatory therapy for pediatric brain tumor. Brain tumors including medulloblastoma (MB) and glioma are among the common malignant primary brain tumors in children. lmmunotherapy holds great promise; however, current T cell-based immunotherapy approaches face significant challenges in treating brain tumors. This is largely due to tumor-associated immunosuppressive myeloid cells, particularly macrophages (Mcps), which hinder T cell infiltration and activation within the tumors. Therefore, development of therapeutic strategies modulating or modifying Mcp-mediated immunological processes are urgently needed. Radiotherapy may stimulate anti-tumor immunity via radiation-induced release of tumor-specific antigens; however, standard radiation may also induce pro-tumor anti-inflammatory Mcp activation, impacting the pathophysiology of neuroimmunological processes in brain tumor. Here, by utilizing a genetically engineered mouse model of MB, our preliminary studies with single-cell transcriptome analysis show that FLASH proton beam radiation skews Mcps towards anti-tumor proinflammatory phenot…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01CA311313-01: FLASH-CAR-T radioimmunotherapy in pediatric brain tumor (2026)
- 2R01NS094533-11: Endothelial plasticity in glioma vascularization and therapy resistance (2026)
- 5R01NS094533-10: Endothelial plasticity in glioma vascularization and therapy resistance (2025)
- 5R01HL155198-04: Endothelial plasticity in cardiac repair after myocardial infarction (2024)
- 5R01NS094533-09: Endothelial plasticity in glioma vascularization and therapy resistance (2024)
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