Asimakopoulos Lab
UCSD Moores Cancer Center
Welcome to the Asimakopoulos Lab at UCSD!
The Asimakopoulos Lab is recruiting!
Email Fotis at: fotis@health.ucsd.edu
Our lab focuses on two major themes:
1. Tumor microenvironment with particular emphasis on the intersection between tumor matrix remodeling and tumor antigen presenting cells (dendritic cells and macrophages).
We study how dynamic stroma sculpting by expanding tumor nests generates signals that influence the survival and activation of antigen-presenting cells (APC) at the invasive cancer margin. Ultimately, we aim to therapeutically harness matrix pathways to turn immunologically "cold" cancers into "hot" cancers that respond to immunotherapy.
2. Multiple myeloma models, immune microenvironment and immunotherapy.
Myeloma is the second most common blood cancer and still incurable. Our lab is a pioneer in creating animal models for this important blood cancer. We recently co-generated the first Ras-driven model for myeloma, VQ, which offers new hopes for a cure of this aggressive malignancy. Our lab is interested in understanding crucial aspects of myeloma progression such as immune microenvironment, tumor cells persisting after therapy and clonal dynamics.
Tyrrell and Asimakopoulos
https://uwmadscience.news.wisc.edu/health/multiple-myeloma-a-cancer-of-snipers-and-bullets/
Congrats to our talented graduate student Alicia Gibbons for winning a prestigious UCSD/La Jolla Institute (LJI) Program in Immunology 2023 Biolegend Fellowship!
The Asimakopoulos Lab elected to membership of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), class of 2023
Founded in 1908, the American Society for Clinical Investigation is one of the oldest and most esteemed nonprofit honor societies of physician-scientists. Membership is by election only, and only researchers who are 50 years of age or younger are eligible for nomination to the Society. Therefore, membership in the ASCI is a recognition of a researcher’s significant contributions, at a relatively young age, to the understanding of human disease. The Society counts among its ranks more than 3,000 members, many of whom are leaders in academic medicine and industry. Many members have been recognized with election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. The ASCI is also proud to have among its membership winners of the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award. The ASCI convenes an annual meeting with the Association of American Physicians and American Physician Scientists Association, and the Society self-publishes the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation (founded 1924) and JCI Insight (founded 2016).
Congratulations to our recent PhD graduate Thanos Papadas for winning a SITC Young Investigator Award for his oral presentation: "Stromal remodeling controls dendritic cell abundance and activity in the tumor microenvironment" at SITC 2021!
Active and Completed Research Funding
