The Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Professor of Oncology
Oncology Department, School of Medicine
Deputy Director, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Co-Director, Gastrointestinal Cancers Program
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Dr. Jaffee’s laboratory focuses on mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance to immune based therapies in mouse models and human models of pancreatic cancer. Areas of specific interest include understanding the inflammatory responses that are associated with cancer development and progression in pre-clinical and clinical models, and development of interventions to bypass specific inflammatory signals. Current projects aim to understand the pancreatic cancer tumor micro-environment and the inflammation that helps shape the tumor micro-environment early, beginning with the pre-malignant changes that are linked to the driver gene changes known to initiate pancreatic cancers (mutated Kras and p53). Her group also developed a number of translational research platforms to test new immunotherapies in patients which provides unique biospecimens to study in early and late-stage pancreatic cancers. Dr. Jaffee’s group demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to convert pancreatic cancer from a non-immunogenic and suppressive immune environment, into an immune permissive environment. Dr. Jaffee’s group incorporates a wide range of expertise to uncover the complex signaling networks within pancreatic cancers that prevent adequate immune recognition. Her work is driving the discovery of pancreatic cancer immunobiology, and these findings are quickly being translated into immunotherapies that are showing promise for this previously immune resistant cancer. Further, she is using state of the art technologies to dissect the tumor microenvironment in mice and pancreatic cancer patients.
Cancer Biology | Immunology and Infectious Diseases | Translational Research
Selected Publications
Li K, Tandurella JA, Gai J, Zhu Q, Lim SJ, Thomas DL 2nd, Xia T, Mo G, Mitchell JT, Montagne J, Lyman M, Danilova LV, Zimmerman JW, Kinny-Köster B, Zhang T, Chen L, Blair AB, Heumann T, Parkinson R, Durham JN, Narang AK, Anders RA, Wolfgang CL, Laheru DA, He J, Osipov A, Thompson ED, Wang H, Fertig EJ, Jaffee EM, Zheng L. Multi-omic analyses of changes in the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma following neoadjuvant treatment with anti-PD-1 therapy. Cancer Cell, 2022.
Ho WJ, Erbe R, Danilova L, Phyo Z, Bigelow E, Stein-O'Brien G, Thomas DL 2nd, Charmsaz S, Gross N, Woolman S, Cruz K, Munday RM, Zaidi N, Armstrong TD, Sztein MB, Yarchoan M, Thompson ED, Jaffee EM, Fertig EJ. Multi-omic profiling of lung and liver tumor microenvironments of metastatic pancreatic cancer reveals site-specific immune regulatory pathways. Genome Biology, 2021.
Ho WJ, Croessmann S, Lin J, Phyo ZH, Charmsaz S, Danilova L, Mohan AA, Gross NE, Chen F, Dong J, Aggarwal D, Bai Y, Wang J, He J, Leatherman JM, Yarchoan M, Armstrong TD, Zaidi N, Fertig EJ, Denny JC, Park BH, Zhang ZY, Jaffee EM. Systemic inhibition of PTPN22 augments anticancer immunity. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2021.
Ho WJ, Yarchoan M, Charmsaz S, Munday RM, Danilova L, Sztein MB, Fertig EJ, Jaffee EM. Multipanel mass cytometry reveals anti-PD-1 therapy-mediated B and T cell compartment remodeling in tumor-draining lymph nodes. JCI Insight, 2020.
Kinkead HL, Hopkins A, Lutz E, Wu AA, Yarchoan M, Cruz K, Woolman S, Vithayathil T, Glickman LH, Ndubaku CO, McWhirter SM, Dubensky TW Jr, Armstrong TD, Jaffee EM, Zaidi N. Combining STING-based neoantigen-targeted vaccine with checkpoint modulators enhances antitumor immunity in murine pancreatic cancer. JCI Insight, 2018.