Polly Chuntova, PhD

Polly Chuntova, PhD, is a senior scientist with over a decade of experience in immune-oncology research, including CAR-T cell therapies, gene therapy vector development, and the tumor microenvironment. Her main career goal is to develop advanced immunotherapy approaches that are both safe and effective for patients with brain tumors.   

Dr. Chuntova received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota where she studied how the transcription factor STAT3, in both immune and epithelial cells, contributes to the early stages of breast cancer development. Her work on STAT3 activation was awarded a Scholar-in-Training award by the American Association for Cancer Research. She trained as a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Dr. Hideho Okada in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, where she evaluated the persistence and efficacy of CAR-T cells as both stand-alone therapy and in combination with approaches targeting the highly immunosuppressive brain tumor microenvironment. 

Dr. Chuntova has presented her research at multiple national science conferences, and her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Neuro-Oncology, and Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.