Dr. Lee Receives DoD Cancer Research Program Impact Award

Dr. Hyun-Sung Lee, assistant professor of surgery in the David J. Sugarbaker Division of Thoracic Surgery and director of the Systems Onco-Immunology Laboratory, has been awarded $2 million in funding for his peer reviewed cancer research program impact award titled “Single-Cell Multi-Omics Integration to Exploit Autoimmunity Induced by Checkpoint Immunotherapy in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.”

The goal with this funding is to identify the baseline autoimmune susceptibility and unveil novel cellular and molecular mechanisms of immunotoxicity after checkpoint immunotherapy. This proposal will provide new clues to better understand the pathogenesis of immunotoxicity and move the field forward. Furthermore, this basic and translational research can provide new avenues for the development of a novel approach for both prevention and therapy of this disease and ultimately prolong survival with better quality of life.

This project is facilitated by a multidisciplinary team of investigators with expertise in autoimmune diseases, bioinformatics, and onco-immunology from the Mesothelioma Treatment Cancer, which was founded by a legendary MPM surgeon, Dr. David J. Sugarbaker, and the Immunotoxicity Working Group in the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. By bringing together a team of multidisciplinary researchers and health care providers whose expertise spans basic, translational research, as well as cutting-edge immunology, this study is ideally poised to make substantial inroads for precision immunotherapy in patients with pleural mesothelioma.