Events Calendar

Tyler Miller, MD, PhD (MGH): Targeting the innate immune system to fight glioblastoma
Tuesday 02 February 2021, 12:00pm - 01:00pm

I believe the best chance of a cure for aggressive brain tumors is to harness the immune system. Cancer immunotherapies require T-cells to migrate into a tumor and maintain their killing ability. Brain tumors are packed with myeloid cells that should kill tumor cells and recruit T-cells; however, the tumors reprogram these myeloid cells to an immunosuppressive state, preventing T-cell migration and function. My aim is to revert tumor-associated myeloid cells to an anti-tumor state; for effective immunotherapy for brain tumor patients. 

To do this, we are characterizing the functions and origins of immune cells in brain tumors. We are developing methods to simultaneously analyze gene expression, genetic mutations, and protein markers in single cells at massive scale, and am using these technologies to deeply characterize the immune microenvironment of brain tumors. We are then using these data to inform therapeutic strategies that could kill or reprogram immunosuppressive macrophages. I am testing these new interventions using a recently developed brain tumor organoid model that maintains the tumor microenvironment, including immune cells. This model system enables us to test therapeutic strategies on patient-specific human myeloid cells that are interacting with human T-cells and cancer cells outside the human brain. Using this new model system, I hope to accelerate the discovery of transformative therapies that harness the immune system to attack brain tumor cells and extend survival for patients.

 

Short Bio:
Tyler E. Miller, MD, PhD is a Clinical Pathology Resident and Research Fellow in Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Miller received his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science from The Ohio State University where he spent 4 years studying the role of microRNAs in tamoxifen resistant breast cancer. He completed his medical degree (MD) and PhD in Pathology/Cancer Biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. His doctoral work was co-mentored by Drs. Jeremy Rich and Paul Tesar and focused on developing novel technologies to discover therapies for glioblastoma. Dr. Miller is a physician scientist currently conducting postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Bradley Bernstein with the goal of discovering effective immunotherapies for brain tumors. Dr. Miller is the recipient of several awards and grants including the American Brain Tumor Association’s Basic Research Fellowship and the UK Brain Tumour Charity’s Future Leaders Fellowship.
Location : Virtual