Hometown: Burlingame, CA
Lab: Bjorn Lillemeier
Lab website: https://lillemeier.salk.edu/
Hobbies: Reading, going to the beach
What do you study? ? I study T cells, which are a crucial cell type in the immune system to control and eliminate both infections and cancer. T cells have a unique receptor, the T cell receptor, which is essential for T cell activity. I study how the T cell receptor signals and how specific proteins within this signaling pathway can be altered to change the function of T cells. Our goal is to determine if these proteins could be targets for new cancer immunotherapies.
Why is it important? T cells are extremely important at keeping us healthy and they play a major role in several different disease types. Normal T cells are critical for protecting us from infectious diseases and cancer, while abnormal T cells can cause various types of autoimmune disorders (e.g. type I diabetes). Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy have shown that targeting immune signaling pathways can improve your body’s immune response against cancer and provide a viable treatment option for patients who had no other treatment options.
What piqued your interest in science? I found biology to be full of interesting questions and even more interesting answers. I was also (and remain) drawn to the aspect of “problem-solving” that occurs at a biological level—for example, how does a T cell know that it’s attacking an infected cell and not a healthy cell?
What do you like about being a scientist? My favorite part about being a scientist is the combination of finding my work very interesting and cool, but also thinking that the goal of my research is important beyond the laboratory. Being a scientist can also be extremely satisfying because you spend most of your time problem solving, which is mostly frustrating but enormously rewarding once you’ve figured it out. Finally, the work is rarely boring because of the frequent new discoveries across disciplines, which allows us to ask more questions and use new methods to try and answer them.
What are 5 general vocabulary terms someone should know going into your field of science?
T cell, T cell receptor, adaptive immune system, cytokine, signal transduction
What are 5 specific vocabulary terms someone should know about your research?
CRISPR, neoantigen, Zap70, cancer immunotherapy, cytotoxicity