Megan Burger, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University
Research Project:
Promoting Cooperative T cell Responses Against Lung Cancer
Grant Awarded:
- Lung Cancer Discovery Award
Research Topics:
- basic biologic mechanisms
- biomarkers
- combination therapies experimental therapeutics
- immunology immunotherapy
Research Disease:
- lung cancer
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer type and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Better treatments and biomarkers that predict patient response are greatly needed to reduce the impact of this terrible disease. Cancer immunotherapies that activate killer T cells of the immune system to seek out and eliminate cancer cells represent a promising new treatment approach for lung cancer. These therapies elicit curative responses in some patients and have been FDA-approved across multiple lung cancer types, including as a first-line therapy. Still, most patients do not benefit from this approach. We aim to understand why and identify ways to improve immunotherapy design to reach more patients. Our studies will use sophisticated mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer, to understand what controls whether T cells can kill cancer cells and identify new immunotherapy approaches that improve T cell function.
Page last updated: October 3, 2023
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