Research
Our goal is to better understand the glioblastoma immune microenvironment by studying longitudinal microenvironment evolution and translating these biological discoveries into new therapies for patients with glioblastoma. Projects in the lab use a combination of high-throughput single-cell and spatial analyses from human tissue obtained in the operating room with mechanistic and in vivo experiments from immunocompetent glioblastoma mouse models to explore how resistance mechanisms develop and tumors evade conventional immunotherapies. Currently, our preclinical work has identified IL6 blockade in combination with checkpoint inhibition as a promising strategy and we are launching at clinical trial at UCSF investigating this approach for patients with recurrent glioblastoma. I am also interested in overcoming the physical challenges limiting drug delivery for brain tumor patients by incorporating focused ultrasound mediated blood brain barrier disruption into immunotherapy treatment paradigms. To accomplish this, I am designing a prototype for intra-operative focused ultrasound to specifically open the blood brain barrier in regions of residual glioblastoma cells after a tumor resection.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Lab Missions
Scientific Rigor and Reproducibility: We believe firmly in upholding the ethical and moral conduct necessary to produce the highest quality, rigorous science. As such, we are committed to honesty and fully embrace constructive criticisms and peer-review of our work to ensure our scientific process is sound and our data is reproducible
Diversity and Equality: Individuality and diversity represent our best assets, and our goal is to elevate our team by embracing everyone’s unique experiences and background. We believe the perspective and experience brought by diverse team members leads to new questions being asked, new approaches being tried, and new collaborations being formed!
Mentorship and Professional Development: An important part of our mission is fostering the development of young students and scientists. We strive to create a culture that nourishes the professional development of all our members, recognizing that every team member is still learning and growing in their professional journey.
New Discoveries for Neuro-Oncology Patients: As we are multi-disciplinary group of physicians, scientists, and students, we believe that combining cutting-edge research with the lab missions’ statement above will uncover new biological discoveries in brain tumors and ultimately result in better treatments and outcomes for neuro-oncology patients.