Andrew Dudley
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Immunotherapies that release the brakes on T cells have transformed cancer care, but they only work if immune cells can physically get into a tumor. The blood vessels that supply tumors are abnormal, and that abnormal lining can block immune cells at the door, which helps explain why many advanced cancers fail to respond.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biology
- Topics
tumor angiogenesis
tumor microenvironment
endothelial cells
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Test whether deleting Dnmt1, a DNA-methylating enzyme that silences genes, in blood vessel lining cells produces durable melanoma control by promoting dendritic cell trafficking to tumor-draining lymph nodes and recruiting CD4+ T cells, using genetic mouse models and immune profiling by flow cytometry.
- Determine whether targeting endothelial Dnmt1 in the vasculature of melanoma lung metastases reduces metastatic burden and improves the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade, including combination regimens.
- Assess whether switching off endothelial Dnmt1 drives new growth of immune-permissive vessels, specifically post-capillary venules and high endothelial venules that immune cells use to enter tissue, in melanoma.
- Compare melanoma models with high versus low tumor mutation burden to define how tumor vascular heterogeneity shapes anti-tumor immunity and response to checkpoint blockade.
More about the research
This project asks whether reprogramming the cells that line tumor blood vessels can open that door and make immune checkpoint blockade work better, especially against cancer that has already spread.
Why it matters
Metastatic melanoma remains hard to treat even with immunotherapy. If making tumor vessels more welcoming to immune cells improves responses, the findings could support vascular-directed therapies given alongside checkpoint blockade, and may point to ways of achieving durable responses at lower checkpoint inhibitor doses, which matters because these drugs carry immune-related side effects.
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.
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.
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.
The school
University of Virginia: 43 labs on PI Pages, $814M a year on research, 413 research doctorates a year.
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