UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center

Immunology and Cancer

Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, with pipette in lab
Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, is an internationally known expert in cancer immunotherapy.

Leadership

Program Leaders: Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, and Justin Kline, MD

Assistant Program Leader: Yuxuan (Phoenix) Miao, PhD

Community Research Advisor: Ramona Burress

The overall goals of the Immunology and Cancer Program are to understand the interaction between the host immune system and malignant tumors, and to manipulate that interaction to promote immune-mediated tumor destruction in patients with cancer. In recent years, tumor immunotherapy has revolutionized the way we treat some kinds of cancer.

These therapies, however, are not effective for all tumor types or all patients. Advances in our understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which the immune system fails to spontaneously reject cancer from a more global perspective will allow for innovations in immune-based therapies as well as optimization of current strategies.

Key Research Themes

  • Perform basic science investigations in immunology relevant to cancer (e.g., innate immunity, lymphocyte activation and peripheral inflammation/tolerance regulation)
  • Generate and interrogate preclinical mouse models of anti-tumor immunity
  • Design and conduct clinical studies of human anti-tumor immunity and novel immunotherapies