About Me

​My area of focus is creating novel therapeutic approaches for cancer immunotherapy in hopes of contributing to a durable treatment for metastatic cancers. During graduate school, my mentor, aka the gentle giant, was diagnosed with stage-four melanoma. Witnessing his struggles with the disease and the side effects of current standard of care chemotherapy created a strong desire to explore novel forms of cancer therapy. My postdoctoral and early faculty research focused on nanoparticles as therapeutic platforms for drug delivery and immune therapy. Currently, my team uses cell biomineralization to transform cancer cells into immune therapeutics. Following intraperitoneal administration, TLR agonist-modified silicified cancer cells are rapidly internalized by myeloid cells with subsequent trafficking to fat-associated lymphoid clusters (FALCs) located in tumor-burdened adipose tissues. Activation of pathogen-recognition receptors (i.e. TLRs) on and within immune cells activates signaling pathways that stimulate suppressed myeloid cells and trigger the release of proinflammatory cytokines, leading to enhanced antigen presentation and activation of cancer-specific T cells, with formation of immune memory.