Cancer Immunometabolism - Professor - Director: Tumor Microenvironment Center - @PittTweet @UPMCHillmanCC - CoFounder:Novasenta - EiC:Immunology - views my own

Pittsburgh, PA
Dearest gentle reader, we are delighted to announce a new story from our lab published in @Nature describing how a meal's systemic metabolic changes are interpreted by your immune system to enhance adaptive immunity. A thread 1/ nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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My mind continues to be blown by this paper from the Singer lab exploring the nature of CD4 and CD8 regulation of immunity. The Treg data alone give me so many ideas. nature.com/articles/s41590-0…
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At long last, I get to share publication of a project (out today in @Nature) on which I started my lab at @UPMCHillmanCC and @PittTweet in 2014. In it, we describe the funky metabolism of regulatory T cells and how it is exploited in cancer. A thread: 1/ nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Thrilled to kick off the holiday season with a new paper from the lab! Out in @NatImmunol today, we explore an unexpected function of terminally exhausted T cells and their contribution to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. 🧵 1/ nature.com/articles/s41590-0…
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So excited to share the arrival of the second and newest collaboration between @OveracreLab and @DelgoffeLab! Meet Olivia Rose Delgoffe, a hypothesis tester already in the making.
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Excited to share our latest work on the metabolism of T cell exhaustion in @NatImmunol. We identify mitochondrial stress, induced via combinations of signals common in tumor microenvironments, as a key driver of T cell exhaustion. A (lengthy) thread: nature.com/articles/s41590-0… 1/
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Took time during our annual lab cookout to celebrate, beyond any paper, my proudest achievement as a PI: every grad student who has trained in my lab has obtained an F grant. These amazing scientists represent a bright future, and I’m so honored to have them in the lab. #Fcrew
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I was inspired by some Science Twitter debates about postdocs that occurred after AAI this year. So, I wrote it up in this month’s editorial for Immunology. Potentially spicy takes ahead, but that’s what you get with me! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
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So excited the product of a long standing (and really fun) collaboration with @poholeklab finally published in @SciImmunology. We used CUT&RUN/Tag to epigenetically profile (histone mods, Tox&BATF binding) T cells as they progress to exhaustion in cancer. science.org/doi/10.1126/scii…
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Love looking at #mitochondria in T cells, they're so busy! Here's a tumor-specific T cell just kissing up to a tumor cell (purple), immediately orienting its mitos (green) to the synapse. Cheers to Ronal in the lab rocking out in this project, and living over at the @CBI_Pitt !
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Elated that 10 years into the founding of the Delgoffe Lab, I've been officially promoted to Professor of Immunology at @PittTweet @PittHealthSci @UPMCHillmanCC! It has been a fun and exciting journey, that could not occurred without my incredible colleagues and trainees. Onward!
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Thrilled to share this labor of love with y'all: Kristin, an amazing PhD student in the lab, and I review immunometabolism against the backdrop of FDA approved classes of cancer immunotherapy: ACT, checkpoint blockade, and oncolytic viruses. @NatRevImmunol nature.com/articles/s41577-0…
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So T cells are vampires? They steal the telomeres of their targets to extend their life. Crazy stuff. 🤯 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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So, a while back we really wanted to get into CAR-T cell therapy in the lab, but we were pretty frustrated in the lack of murine CAR constructs: most of the field used human CAR-T cells in immunodeficient mice. We decided to take this on: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.… 1/
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New preprint from the lab is online! The product of a stellar collaboration with @Muir_Lab, we explore a chemically defined physiologic media formulation based of the metabolite of tumor interstitial fluid (TIF, or “tumor juice”) and its effects on T cell function! A brief 🧵1/
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2020 has been crazy. And there have been some pretty bad days. But today was a damn good day. TWO papers accepted in principle. Thanks to an amazing team. I am one proud PI today.
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Excited to be embarking on a new adventure as EIC of Immunology. More details to come soon!
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Congratulations to my mentor Dario (@Vignali_Lab)! Last night at #AACRtii23 we celebrated his new role as Chair of Immunology @PittTweet! The future of the department is bright!
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Thrilled to announce that I’m to be a tenured Associate Professor here @PittTweet! Thankful for my incredible team, collaborators, colleagues, mentors, sponsors, and the support of @UPMCHillmanCC. Last not least, I’d be lost without the support of my amazing partner @aeoveracre.
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Leadership silent, probably just as in the dark as we are. The Pitt story is a leak: still no word from graduate council. The uncertainty in academia, a mainstay of American culture, is terrifying.
Pitt to pause PhD admissions, following Vanderbilt and USC, because of uncertainty of NIH funding to academic universities. Who will teach and train US scientists for pharma and biotech? Should we import them from countries that do? wesa.fm/health-science-tech/…
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We #immunometabolism folks always talk about how metabolically demanding immune cell activation is, but my #SundayCuriosity is: has this ever been measured? Has anyone shown how many “calories” a T cell response requires/burns?
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One late night in NYC, @theLundLab, @Joshilabyale, and I were eating some 1am midtown pizza (many drinks had been consumed). "You know what would be awesome? A @KeystoneSymp that's all about T cell differentiation in tissues!" And here we are: keysym.us/KSTCells25 1/
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Do you like glucose? (Who doesn't?) Do you like adoptive cell therapies? (Very cool right now!) Do you like Treg cells? (They're an acquired taste.) Recruiting postdoctoral researchers to the lab! DM or send an email if interested!
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Soon, I will 'officially' be Editor-in-Chief of @WileyBiomedical Immunology, and I'm thrilled to be taking the lead at a journal with such a rich history. I'm taking a minute to share some of my vision, but watch this space (and my Jan editorial) for more on our path forward!
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Last month, I was honored to take the reins as Director of the Tumor Microenvironment Center here at the @UPMCHillmanCC. Thrilled to be working with powerhouses like @RobertFerrisMD and @Vignali_Lab (former Directors), @YinanGong, @BcellBruno, Man-Tzu Wang, and @OveracreLab. 1/2
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3 years ago, @RobertFerrisMD, @Vignali_Lab, and I founded a startup w/ @UPMCEnterprises to drive cancer immunotherapeutic target discovery. Led by our CEO @ManiMohindru, we’ve built a team and new space and today we decloaked Novasenta and cut the ribbon! Novasenta.com
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Thank you to Erika Pearce and colleagues for Spotlighting @Cancer_Cell work from our lab and @ZappasodiLab published recently at @Nature exploring how glucose and lactate play roles in regulatory T cell biology - cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltex…
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Today marks the 8th anniversary of the Delgoffe Lab, and we started it having lab meeting in our beautiful new space. A different view than 2014! I am so honored to have had such great folks working in the lab, and to have amazing colleagues and collaborators along the way.
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Had fun writing this review for @NatImmunol with Drew Wilfahrt, a talented postdoc in the lab #notontwitter - are metabolites a T cell's "fourth signal"? Or are metabolites the "medium" in which Signals 1-3 are transmitted? Probably both, but you decide! rdcu.be/dwj7w
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Off to Milan with the indomitable @OveracreLab for @CancerResearch #CICON23! With a little stop off at Lake Como prior, to be fair.
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Important work, regardless of how inconvenient this truth is. I would add, this is especially true of metabolic genes!
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Honored to be a CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR: we are passionate about understanding how to metabolically leverage cancer #immunotherapy. Excited to hang out with the @CancerResearch peeps at #CICON22 in a couple weeks!
CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Dr. Greg Delgoffe @DelgoffeLab of @UPMCHillmanCC @PittTweet is exploring how cancer metabolism influences the immune system and immunotherapy. Discover how he’s fueling cancer immunity: #CancerResearch bit.ly/3QFVzIM
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I am so proud of the newest PhD minted from the lab, Paolo ⁦@pdaVignali⁩, who defended his dissertation successfully yesterday. Paolo now goes back to med school to finish the OTHER degree. Paolo was an incredible asset to the lab and a true team player. Congratulations!
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Incredibly honored to receive a CRI LJO STAR Award! We are looking forward to continuing to explore ways to metabolically bolster anticancer immunity . Grateful (as always) to my amazing team, @UPMCHillmanCC, colleagues, and collaborators. #immunotherapy #immunometabolism
Congratulations to the five new CRI LJO STAR scientists: Drs. @joshuabrodyMD, @TDanino, @DelgoffeLab, @GavinGpdunn, and @HolabUnil. The five scientists are awarded $1.25 million each to carry out transformative cancer immunotherapy research 👏 bit.ly/3i8Jomc
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The @OveracreLab @DelgoffeLab household wears white for Cancer Immunotherapy Day! Passionate about creating a world #Immune2Cancer!
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I think it's impossible to be a PI without the understanding that our job is, above all else, to train the next generation. Having a stellar former student like Nicole see that in me is the highest praise one could ask for. 🥲
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First transatlantic since Feb 2020. Absolutely thrilled to be sharing our work in cancer #immunometabolism at the EMBO Cancer Immunometabolism workshop in Spain! meetings.embo.org/event/21-c…
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So excited to see friends and colleagues in Munich at Immunoctoberfest 2022! I'll be talking about T cell dysfunction induced (solely!!!) by the metabolite constituency of the tumor microenvironment! @Muir_Lab #TIF #KennedyPathway #immunometabolism physio.wzw.tum.de/immunologi…
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Several years ago, we showed in @ImmunityCP that PGC1a, a factor involved in mitochondrial biogenesis, could prevent functional exhaustion in murine TCR-Tg cells, enabling cell therapy of cancer. Today, we share that this translates to human CAR-T cells, published @jitcancer!
New #JITC article: Metabolic reprogramming via an engineered PGC-1α improves human chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy against solid tumors bit.ly/3JAt9ig @KonLontos @DelgoffeLab
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I love this paper. A typical individual has about 100g of T cells! Combined with the data in this paper (nature.com/articles/s41598-0…) we might start to estimate the energetic cost of T cell activation!
The total mass, number, and distribution of immune cells in the human body: ~2 trillion cells collectively weighting ~1.2 kg (40% are lymphocytes, 10% macrophages) pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pn…
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Happy New Year, science friends! May your experiments yield interpretable results and may your reviews be rapid and favorable!
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Lazy morning with baby Olivia, future cancer researcher! @AACR
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Arrived at #AACR24! Excited to talk #immunometabolism and cancer with everyone tomorrow at a major symposia (1pm) and at the cancer immunology CIMM working group meeting at 6!
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Very excited to be here at the Autumn Immunology Conference @AIC2021 with my incredible trainees! Speaking tomorrow about metabolic reprogramming strategies for cancer immunotherapy, but check out our posters/talks for even more cool data!
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Had a great dinner out with the lab last night at #SITC2021. So proud of these incredible scientists!
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The LSRII was shaped like a coffin for a reason… #flowcytometry
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Honored to receive the inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award at this year’s @UPMCHillmanCC Retreat. I am thrilled to have such a stellar team of great scientists who are passionate about #immunometabolism and cancer #immunotherapy.
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Honored to be included in the National Academy of Inventors! Thanks to the @UPMCHillmanCC and @PittHealthSci for providing the critical support needed to drive innovation!
Congratulations to Greg Delgoffe for his election as a Senior Member of the @AcadofInventors. The @delgoffeLab studies the intersection of metabolism and immunity in cancer and has already helped produce two start-up companies.hubs.li/Q02mBRJX0
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Wanna nerd out about metabolism in cancer immunology? Come check out our major symposium at 12:30 in Valencia B/C! #AACR2023
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I'm so excited to be co-running this @KeystoneSymp! We'll be hearing some titans of T cell immunology talking about differentiation in tissues! Abstracts are due November 5th! Put one in and come have a great time with us! #KSTCells25 keysym.us/KSTCells25
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Took the top spot at the Pitt Immunology Holiday Party’s ugly sweater competition in collaboration with @OveracreLab! A great time was had by all (and yes, that is a holiday themed flight suit)!
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nature.com/articles/s41556-0… New work from the group is now ONLINE at @NatureCellBio! Originally tweet-threaded here:
New preprint from the lab is online! The product of a stellar collaboration with @Muir_Lab, we explore a chemically defined physiologic media formulation based of the metabolite of tumor interstitial fluid (TIF, or “tumor juice”) and its effects on T cell function! A brief 🧵1/
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Finished @R2C_Cancer! Despite the rain, @OveracreLab had an awesome time riding tandem to support research @UPMCHillmanCC!!!
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Congrats to Hannah in the lab for receiving her NoA for a NCI F30 to support her MD/PhD work in the lab. She is a super smart and diligent trainee who is working to metabolically improve the process by which we manufacture T cells for cancer immunotherapy!
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The Delgoffe lab has descended on Miami for @sitcancer’s Spring Scientific #SprITC24! Excited to share our work in #immunometabolism and cancer with the world!
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Honored to be including amongst these incredible folks here at @PittTweet! Thankful for the support of @UPMCHillmanCC and for my amazing team without whom none of the science would be possible.
Congratulations, winners of the inaugural Ascending Stars Award! @ahmari_lab @DelgoffeLab @YingDing13 @macky_neal bit.ly/3oVbJSt
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Incredible session on #immunometabolism here at @AACR #AACR24. Thanks to the stellar speakers and great audience discussion!
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Today I wear white for cancer #immunotherapy. I envisage a future #Immune2Cancer where we can leverage #immunometabolism to improve cancer immunity and patient outcomes! @CancerResearch @sitcancer @TheMarkFdn @UPMCHillmanCC
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Honored to receive this award, along with Yana Najjar and John Kirkwood, to study the immunometabolic features of in transit melanoma. Lots of high dimensional profiling, hypoxia imaging, and metabolic dissection of immune phenotypes!
Congratulations to Dr. Greg Delgoffe on receiving the Black Family-MRA Team #Science Award to #research the evolution of metabolic and immune dysfunction in in-transit #melanoma! @UPMCHillmanCC @UPMC @gmdelgoffe curemelanoma.org/assets/Uplo…
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So fortunate to be invited to organize next year’s @sitcancer Spring Scientific #SprITC24 focused around cancer, immune, and microbiome metabolism! Stay tuned for details, but mark your calendars: this one is gonna be good! sitcancer.org/education/spri…
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Conservatively it cost taxpayers ~$10M for Trump to attend and be booed at the Super Bowl a few hours last night. That’s enough for FIVE 5-year R01 grants (plus 2024 level of indirects). Five labs studying important questions in biomedical science until 2030. Govt Efficiency?!
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Congrats to Dr. Mac Watson #notontwitter for a fantastic dissertation defense @Pitt_PMI! I am so proud of this incredible scientist. He has not only learned how to be an incredible technical scientist, but has moved the needle on our understanding of regulatory T cells.
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Honored to be a 2022 @Clarivate #HighlyCited2022 researcher! Thankful for my amazing team, past and present, for their dedication to understanding #immunometabolism and cancer. Also shout out to @PittTweet @UPMCHillmanCC for incredible support! clarivate.com/highly-cited-r…
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this is not true. This isnt just the overhead stuff. They have seriously slowed research funding including cancer by halting grant review and approval. IDC cuts also stop universities from working but that’s a different issue. I’ll say it everyday because it’s happening to me.
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I am so honored to receive the Emerging Leader Award from @TheMarkFdn, and excited to continue to develop ways to employ #immunometabolism to improve #immunotherapy!
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Wearing white today for cancer #immunotherapy! Working with my amazing team to refuel and energize T cells to help create a future #Immune2Cancer! @CancerResearch
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Had an absolutely incredible time once again at @ImmunOctober. A stellar lineup of T cell researchers. Long and dense days, but worth every minute. I predict a measurable number of collaborative and co-submitted papers arising from this meeting. See y’all in 2026 in Memphis!
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After several major travel hiccups, I'm on my way to Newcastle to open the @BSI_immunomet #UKimmunomet22 workshop! I'll be talking about mostly unpublished data exploring the metabolism of exhausted T cells in cancer.
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Excited to be back for our annual Pitt Immunology #PittIMM23 retreat, hearing from our new chair on our vision going forward. Let’s science!
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Still feeling super inspired by a great @BSI_immunomet meeting last week in Newcastle #UKimmunomet22! A lot of new directions to consider, but also a convergence of ideas, outlook, and even fashion! Here’s @immunometlab and I discovering that we have the same taste in sportcoats!
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Congrats to Kellie Spahr on the lab, who (among winning poster awards, pictured) just received her NCI F31 NoA to figure out what makes exhausted T cells fat (and, man, they are SO fat), and how to put those bad boys on a diet! #proudPI
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1) Lack of good/safe, dense antigen 2) Poor infiltration and no T cell help 3) nutrient imbalance/hypoxia within TME 4) convergent persistent signaling causing exhaustion (before or after infusion) 5) failure to engraft/persist to get constant new entrants into the tumor
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Great speakers dinner for the EMBO Cancer Immunometabolism workshop! @meta_canproject
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The first president my daughter will remember, thankfully, is Joe Biden. We are so excited that “the blue one” (in her words) won. We welcome decency, sanity, and respect for the truth back to the White House!
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Had a lot of fun writing this article about immunosuppressive metabolites in cancer with Mac, a former student in the lab. Check it out!
#ReviewSeries: Fighting in a wasteland: deleterious metabolites and antitumor immunity: buff.ly/3AbvnhT A #Review by @McLaneWatson and @DelgoffeLab @UPMCHillmanCC in the Review Series- Immunometabolism: buff.ly/3n1a6Sx
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Congrats to Dr. Kristin DePeaux, the newest minted PhD @Pitt_PMI from the lab! She gave an incredible thesis presentation and defense yesterday on resistance and response to #oncolyticvirus immunotherapy. So excited to see her future success!
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Honored to be invited, and thrilled to share our work with the @PittTweet @PittHealthSci community.
Don't miss the first lecture in the inaugural Ascending Stars awards series.
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Finishing your R01 application and then hitting submit. nitter.app/Yoda4ever/status/15744…
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Congratulations to Andrew Frisch, PhD student in the lab, for receiving his F31 NoA from the NCI! Andrew studies metabolic manipulations that can be performed during in vitro expansion that improve cellular #immunotherapy for cancer.
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I have a soft spot for #oncolyticvirus immunotherapy: OVs can lyse tumor cells, inflame the TME, and deliver gene therapy. Kristin Depeaux from the lab will be sharing work at #SITC2022 @ 4:20p (Sesh 214) on OVs engineered to deliver TGFb inhibition to the TME! Check it out!
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Honored to be elected. In the lab we continue to define new ways to leverage #immunometabolism to treat cancer!
Congratulations to @delgoffelab for being elected as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors for his work pioneering research and commercialization of cell and gene therapies to treat cancer. go.upmc.com/1973PqdjD
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About a year ago, I penned an editorial on the postdoc crisis in research, which garnered a lot of interest. On Friday (10-12 Rm207b), I'll be presenting not about science but about issues plaguing postdocs during a policy session at @ImmunologyAAI #IMMUNOLOGY2023. See you there!
I was inspired by some Science Twitter debates about postdocs that occurred after AAI this year. So, I wrote it up in this month’s editorial for Immunology. Potentially spicy takes ahead, but that’s what you get with me! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
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“There was a time when this country believed in science.” Amen.
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Absolutely gobsmacked (and humbled) to be invited to deliver a keynote lecture for this Keystone Symposia on Emerging #CellularTherapy. Hope to see you all there in Keystone, where I'll discuss some ways we are metabolically improving cell therapies for cancer.
Don't miss the chance to give a short talk on your research at joint @KeystoneSymp Precision #GenomeEngineering & Emerging #CellularTherapy, rescheduled from Feb to April. The deadline for abstract submissions & discounted early registration is MARCH 15! hubs.la/Q015J4rW0
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The USA is powerhouse of scientific innovation and potential to dramatically improve human health. RFK Jr. being in control of HHS/@NIH?! What do you think that means for any future for the US in science? Vote blue down the ticket, let's keep being leaders in science and health!
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Honored to have received the Marks Tang Award to support our ongoing research program in T cell therapy in blood cancers and solid tumors. Grateful to the @SMMresearchfund and the Tang Foundation for supporting our vision!
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Check out the paper at cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S…! Fantastic work by Dayana, Kristin, and the crew on the great work! 8/8
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Look at that lineup! So excited to co-organize (@JennGuerriero @JenWargoMD) the @sitcancer Spring Scientific #SprITC2024 focused on metabolism in cancer immunotherapy! Hope you can join us!
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Speaking of govt spending and efficiency, my favorite example. ONE F-35C jet costs taxpayers $104M, which is enough money to fund 50 R01 grants with 2024 indirects for the next 5 years. That’s 50 labs taking on health questions until 2030, for a single jet, of which we have 1000.
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Recently received an invitation to submit to a (likely) predatory journal that really just went ALL IN: It's called Nature Cell and Science. The publisher is CNS Press. I guess once I pay my publication fee I can say "I've published in Nature, Cell, and Science!"
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Excited to be giving Grand Rounds at @NCIResearchCtr on Friday, 11/20 at 12pm! I'll discuss how tumor metabolism promotes the activity of exhausted and regulatory T cells: two papers currently in press! Open to the public, so come check it out: bit.ly/2JKa3tx
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Wow. What a speech! Joe and Kamala’s platform of mutual respect, decency, science, and hope is inspiring. Time to get to work! Also, great tunes!
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Super excited to give this talk next week! Check it out!
17th @OpenBoxSci Symposium "Tregs in the tumor microenvironment" 🎉10:00-12:00pm ET April 8th 🎉 📌@DelgoffeLab @Pitt_PMI @PittTweet 📌@RZappasodi @WeillCornell @parkerici 📌@QuezadaLab @UCL 📌Moderated by @Silvia_galvan_p 👉Zoom link einsteinmed.zoom.us/meeting/…
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