William Hudson, PhD

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality. Immunotherapies, which are drugs to improve immune responses against tumors, have greatly improved clinical treatment of lung cancer. Unfortunately, not all patients respond to existing immunotherapies. We will identify strategies to develop new immunotherapies. In particular, we will deeply study T cells, a class of immune cell that can directly kill cancer cells. In the first part of this study, we will isolate individual T cells from lung tumors that have been surgically resected from cancer patients. We will deeply probe these T cells to detect signaling pathways that may inhibit their function. In the second part of this study, we will use a new technique, termed spatial transcriptomics, to spatially locate these T cells within the tumor and identify nearby molecules that may inhibit their function. By combining these parts, we will identify targets to improve cancer immunotherapy.

Update:

This year we developed an innovative spatial transcriptomics technique that enables single-cell profiling and precise identification of T cell clones within lung adenocarcinoma. This method has allowed us to gain valuable information about gene expression and the location of tumor-infiltrating T cells, revealing novel insights into the tumor microenvironment. Our findings are paving the way for identifying different ways cells communicate that could potentially boost T cell responses and overcome resistance to existing therapies.