Congratulations to Brian Laight, Danielle Harper, Natasha Dmytryk and Connie Zhang for their ground- breaking Cancer Research paper showing that the FES protein tyrosine kinase plays an immune checkpoint role in antigen presenting cells which makes it a potential therapeutic target to enhance the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors like anti-PD1 which work on the T cells.
Brian assembled an impressive team of collaborators from within and beyond the lab to support his findings using genetic mouse engraftment models.
Brian has returned to medical school to continue his progress through the MD-PhD program. Connie has moved on to a position in industry, Natasha has entered medical school, and Dani is in the last stages of her PhD with plans to purse a PDF in the UK. This research project is continuing with new MSc student Julian Simonetti and research associates Yan Gao and Changnian Shi, with engagement by two eager undergraduate students Alisha Varty-Higgs and Steph Trandafir.
This work was supported by grants from the CIHR and the Canadian Cancer Society. Read their published work here: Fes-Deficient Macrophages Prime CD8+ T Cells to Stimulate Antitumor Immunity and Improve Immunotherapy Efficacy | Cancer Research | American Association for Cancer Research.