Riyue Bao
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Immunotherapy drugs called immune-checkpoint inhibitors release the brakes on T cells, the immune cells that can kill tumors. Yet most patients with solid tumors do not benefit.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Computer Science
- Topics
cancer immunotherapy
immune-checkpoint inhibitors
immune exclusion
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Establish whether tumor-cell p38 MAPK signaling causes non-T cell-inflamed tumors and resistance to checkpoint inhibitors in HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, using patient cohorts and four syngeneic mouse models.
- Determine how the spatial distribution of p38 MAPK within tumors affects T-cell infiltration, using multispectral spatial imaging of HPV-negative head and neck cancer biopsies analyzed with machine and deep learning.
- Validate and discover immune-resistance pathways co-activated with p38, using RNA sequencing, single-cell data and drug databases, plus biopsies from a trial of the p38 inhibitor ARRY-614 with nivolumab.
- Provide Hillman Cancer Center investigators with genomic data analysis, high-performance computing and the Pittsburgh Genome Resource Repository of TCGA data through Cancer Bioinformatics Services.
More about the research
One reason is that some tumors keep T cells out. The team has shown that a T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment, one filled with CD8+ killer T cells and interferon-driven gene activity, is an important marker of who responds to immunotherapy. This work asks why other tumors stay "cold" and how to change that. It also includes a shared bioinformatics service that helps cancer researchers analyze genomic data.
Why it matters
Most people with solid tumors, including HPV-negative head and neck cancer, do not respond to immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Showing that tumor-cell p38 signaling drives resistance could support combining p38 inhibitors with anti-PD1 drugs. It could also point to further drug targets for future clinical trials. The shared bioinformatics service helps cancer researchers analyze large genomic datasets.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dohun Pyeon
Michigan State University, MI·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how the chemokine CXCL14 increases MHC-I antigen presentation, which lets immune cells recognize tumor cells, to suppress HPV-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Sana D Karam
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-L1 drugs act on PD-1-expressing regulatory T cells and their STAT3 signaling during radiation therapy, using genetically engineered mice and samples from HNSCC clinical trials.
Hua Li
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Biomedical Engineering
Develop a learning-based prognostic model that predicts cervical cancer treatment response and outcome by integrating RNA biomarkers, radiologic and histologic images, and clinicopathologic data from about 600 patients at two institutions.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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