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Member & Head, Program of Immunology, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch
Professor of Immunology and Medicine, University of Washington
Endowed Chair: The Rona Jaffe Foundation Endowed Chair
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Dr. Tom Schmitt has made extensive contributions to the development of adoptive T cell therapy as an effective treatment against cancer. He and his team are applying novel high-throughput screening and genetic approaches to interrogate healthy immune repertoires, identify and characterize T cells specific for the most promising tumor antigens, and then isolate rare, highly effective T cell receptors (TCRs) for therapeutic use. Dr. Schmitt is also working to understand the molecular bases of effective antigen presentation by tumor cells and the complex structure/function relationships that govern tumor targeting by T cells, informing new strategies to improve the clinical efficacy of TCR-based T cell therapies.
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Daniel is interested in identifying novel TCRs for clinical application, as well as modulating cellular pathways to enhance engineered adoptive T cell therapy effectiveness.
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Leah is using autochthonous mouse models of cancer to study the reciprocal impacts of adoptive engineered T cell therapy and the tumor microenvironment. The goal is to uncover new strategies for improving outcomes of anti-cancer immunotherapies in solid tumor settings.
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Jihoon is an MD-PhD student interested in engineering TCR-T cell therapy to have enhanced persistence and long-term therapeutic activity. He is working on increasing the accuracy of T cell receptor targeting against tumor antigens and altering T cell molecular profiles to drive toward greater therapeutic persistence.
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Kristin studies properties of T cell migration and tumor microenvironments that impact the utility of adoptive T cell therapy for solid tumors, with a focus on ovarian cancer. Chemotherapy, immune checkpoint blockade, cell depletion techniques, and abrogation of other negative T cell regulators are being tested as strategies that might enhance adoptive T cell immunotherapy efficacy.
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Natalie is an experienced and dedicated senior project manager in the Program in Immunology with more than 20 years of experience supporting clinical trials and leading effective, synergistic teams while ensuring that safety, regulatory and government standards are met. She is also Captain of Obliteride's Team T-cell promoting team spirit and and helping advance Fred Hutch's mission to cure cancer faster.
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Jessica works on Tom Schmitt’s team to identify and evaluate novel T cell receptors (TCRs). The goal is to discover high affinity TCRs for a driver mutation, KRAS, for potential T cell therapies. Outside of lab, she enjoys plants and finding new music.