Sana D Karam
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), a cancer of the mouth, throat and nearby tissues, is often treated with radiation and with immunotherapy drugs that release the brakes on the immune system. These treatments work very differently from patient to patient.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
head and neck cancer
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
tumor immunology
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- 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.
- Test how Treg interaction with high endothelial venules, the lymph-node vessels T cells use to enter, through LTA1B2-LTBR signaling creates an immunosuppressive, tumor-promoting lymph node, including whether LTBR agonists reverse it.
- Determine how ST2-expressing Tregs and their partner signal IL33 shape the tumor immune environment during lymph node progression, using knockout mice, single-cell RNA sequencing and mass cytometry.
- Define how estradiol regulates dendritic cell maturation and antigen presentation through specific estrogen receptor subtypes, using engineered mice, in vitro assays and proteomic analysis.
- Test how estradiol acting on Tregs and on high endothelial venule formation drives sex differences in immunotherapy response and T-cell trafficking, using mouse chimeras, drugs, flow cytometry and immunofluorescence.
More about the research
Two projects ask why, focusing on regulatory T cells (Tregs), immune cells that hold back other immune responses. Both look at Tregs in the tumor and in the draining lymph nodes, the nodes where cancer often spreads and where killer T cells are primed. Both also study high endothelial venules (HEVs), specialized blood vessels in lymph nodes that let T cells enter.
Why it matters
Patients with head and neck cancer could benefit if doctors knew why some radiation-immunotherapy combinations prevent lymph node recurrence while others trigger it. Targeting Tregs, HEVs or the ST2-IL33 pathway may suggest new treatment approaches. Understanding how estrogen shapes immune responses could lead to sex-directed biomarkers and therapies that match treatments to a patient's sex and menopausal status.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Masanobu Komatsu
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether the signaling protein R-Ras in blood vessel cells drives the formation of high endothelial venules in tumors, using mice that lack or overproduce endothelial R-Ras in mammary tumor and melanoma models.
Jin Xie
University of Georgia, GA·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether anti-CD205 antibody-conjugated calcium nanoparticles (αCaNPs) selectively raise cytosolic calcium in circulating cDC1 dendritic cells and increase their infiltration into tumors in murine head and neck cancer models.
Xiao-Jing Wang
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether blocking TGFβ and PD-L1 together strengthens the radiation-triggered "in situ vaccine" effect and immune activation across the body, using mouse oral cancer cells transplanted into the mouth of immune-competent mice.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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