Julia Gensheimer is a senior double majoring in Biology and Chemistry. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Keystone Symposia: Cancer Immunotherapy: Mechanistic Insights to Improve Clinical Benefits.
As a freshman at Emory, I was eager to join a lab studying cancer immunotherapy. I read research descriptions on faculty websites and contacted principal investigators to express my enthusiasm for joining their lab. Rafi Ahmed, a world-renowned immunologist, replied within minutes. After learning of his legacy, I arrived at the meeting prepared for an intense interview. Instead, I was met with a smile as he simply asked me when I wanted to start!
What distinguishes immunotherapy from other targeted therapies is the manipulation of immune cells to restore their native disease-fighting abilities. CD8+, or cytotoxic, T cells are key players in this treatment. CD8+T cells are immune cells that patrol the body in search of infected cells. In chronic viral infections and cancers, these cells often become overstimulated and enter an ‘exhausted’ state, marked by the expression of surface proteins like PD-1 and loss of their cytotoxic capabilities. These cells are losing their superpowers. To restore their disease-fighting capabilities, antibodies known as immune checkpoint inhibitorsblock these proteins. This novel approach to cancer immunotherapy was recently recognized in the 2018 Nobel Prizefor Physiology or Medicine. Despite the success of checkpoint blockade, not all tumor types or patients respond to this therapy, which inspires the search for other immunotherapy targets on the surface of CD8+T cells. This is the goal of my project in the Ahmed lab.
Since my first email to Rafi Ahmed in 2016, I have had the privilege of working with and learning from expert scientists daily, both during the semester and over the summer thanks to SURE. I have also been able to present my project at local (and now, international!) conferences and even publish a paperin a prestigious journal. It is most rewarding to know that I am contributing to initiatives that have the potential to benefit patients receiving cancer immunotherapies.
As if my time in the Ahmed lab could not get any better, I learned of a Keystone Symposia conferenceon cancer immunotherapy in Whistler, British Columbia that was scheduled during Emory’s spring break. I thought, what better way to spend my spring break?I checked the speaker line-up as if I was going to a music festival and saw cancer immunotherapy experts that I had admired for years, including Carl June, Crystal Mackall, Phil Greenberg, Jim Allison, and Mike Jensen. With the support of my lab and Emory Undergraduate Research Programs (URP), I presented my project to experts, learned of the diverse number of strategies to design and improve cancer immunotherapies, met scientists at all levels of training, and left even more confident in my decision to pursue a career as a physician scientist.
Now a senior at Emory, I look back on my time on campus fondly. Thanks to the generosity of my research mentors and the support of URP, I was able to learn and grow as a scientist.These experiences have reaffirmed my passion for cancer immunotherapy and medicine and I will continue this journey in a Medical Scientist Training Program(MSTP) this fall to earn an MD and PhD.
Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.
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