Priti Hegde

My team is predominantly focused on biomarkers associated with benefit/escape to cancer immunotherapy agents including checkpoint inhibitors such as those targeting the PD-L1/PD-1 signaling pathway.

Using serial biopsies from patients on clinical trials, we identified distinct histological features in human cancers that promote anti-tumor immune responses or prevent the same based on the localization of T-cells in the context of tumor cells, as well as prevalence of other immunosuppressive cell types in the tumor microenvironment. We have systematically interrogated cancers to understand the relative prevalence of these various cell types and developed a tumor immunome map that shows how cancers differ from one another based on the immunological fingerprint.

A large focus of my group is on identifying predictive markers that enable tailored treatment strategies for patients. To this end, we demonstrated the role of PD-L1 on both tumor cells and immune cells as a predictive marker for checkpoint inhibitors. Development of diagnostic based clinical strategies for drugs is important to ensure that the right patient gets the right drug. We believe strongly in this mission and incorporate biomarkers as endpoints in most of our clinical trials.

• The Institute for Genomics Research, Post-doctoral fellowship – 2000
• SUNY Buffalo, PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology – 1998