Elliott Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01 recently published a major review article entitled “Tumor Microenvironmental Influences on Dendritic Cell and T Cell Function: A Focus on Clinically Relevant Immunologic and Metabolic Checkpoints” in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine. An invited review commissioned by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Dr. Xiangdong Wang, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of the Shanghai Institute of Clinical Bioinformatics at the prestigious Fudan University in China, Dr. Hargadon’s article highlights recent advances in immunotherapy and targeted therapy as cutting-edge treatments for cancer. His review discusses in particular the role of key checkpoints that inherently limit the immune and metabolic functions of dendritic cells and T cells within the tumor microenvironment, and it emphasizes how insights into these suppressive pathways have led to the identification of novel targets for therapies designed to enhance the anti-tumor immune functions of these important cell populations. Dr. Hargadon’s article also discusses the potential for combinatorial therapies that target these diverse checkpoints to enhance patient outcome by increasing the percentage of patients likely to benefit from immunotherapy and by overcoming tumor cell resistance to immunotherapy in patients who normally do respond but then ultimately relapse.

Published by John Wiley and Sons (Wiley), Clinical and Translational Medicine is an international, peer-reviewed, and open access journal with aims at 1) promoting and accelerating the translation of preclinical research to a clinical application and 2) enhancing communication between basic and clinical scientists. Dr. Hargadon’s article can be accessed at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ctm2.37