Profile
Tumor immunology has been centered on T lymphocytes, but T-cells do not work alone. A coordinated humoral response with cellular arm of adaptive immunity develops sustained long-term memory. Although B lymphocytes have been correlated with cancer-promoting activities, recent evidence exhibits that humoral response is associated with immune protection in multiple cancers. Cross-talk of B-cells with other immune cells at tumor beds, apart from T-cells, is an area that needs to be thoroughly investigated. Germinal center formation in epithelial malignancies is a complex process that ensures the production of protective anti-tumor antibodies at tumor beds, and we speculate that orchestration of tertiary-lymphoid-structures that eventually leads to germinal centers is largely dependent on other immune and non-immune cells. Our long-term goal is a comprehensive understanding of how the tumor microenvironment directs the nature of spontaneous immune pressure in epithelial cancers, with a special focus on cancers that specifically affect women.
Current Focus Areas
Developing active and passive vaccines for ovarian and breast cancer: we are focusing on identifying unique, immunogenic targets present in the majority of human ovarian and breast cancer tumor tissues and utilizing them for their use as active vaccination agents, or induced antibodies for passive vaccination for advanced diseases.
Mechanistic insights on how the spontaneous antitumor antibodies become ineffective in clearing cancer: we are aiming to unravel the reason why the spontaneous antitumor IgG/IgA antibodies that coat epithelial tumor islets remain inefficient in inducing the killing of cancer cells by promoting ADCC and complement fixation.
Selected Publications
Biswas S*, Mandal G*, Anadon CM*, Chaurio RA, Lopez-Bailon LU, Nagy MZ, Mine JA, Hänggi K, Sprenger KB, Innamarato P, Harro CM, Powers JJ, Johnson J, Fang B, Eysha M, Nan X, Li R, Perez BA, Curiel TJ, Yu X, Rodriguez PC, Conejo-Garcia JR. 2023. Targeting intracellular oncoproteins with dimeric IgA promotes expulsion from the cytoplasm and immune-mediated control of epithelial cancers. Immunity. Nov 14;56(11):2570-2583.e6. (*Co-first authors).
Mandal G, Biswas S, Anadon CM, Yu X, Gatenbee CD, Prabhakaran S, Payne KK, Chaurio RA, Martin A, Innamarato P, Moran C, Powers JJ, Harro CM, Mine JA, Sprenger KB, Rigolizzo KE, Wang X, Curiel TJ, Rodriguez PC, Anderson AR, Saglam O, Conejo-Garcia JR. 2022. IgA-Dominated Humoral Immune Responses Govern Patients' Outcome in Endometrial Cancer. Cancer Research. Mar 1;82(5):859-871.
Biswas S, Mandal G, Payne KK, Anadon CM, Gatenbee CD, Chaurio RA, Costich TL, Moran C, Harro CM, Rigolizzo KE, Mine JA, Trillo-Tinoco J, Sasamoto N, Terry KL, Marchion D, Buras A, Wenham RM, Yu X, Townsend MK, Tworoger SS, Rodriguez PC, Anderson AR, Conejo-Garcia JR. 2021. IgA transcytosis and antigen recognition govern ovarian cancer immunity. Nature. Mar;591(7850):464-470.
Payne KK, Mine JA, Biswas S, Chaurio RA, Perales-Puchalt A, Anadon CM, Costich TL, Harro CM, Walrath J, Ming Q, Tcyganov E, Buras AL, Rigolizzo KE, Mandal G, Lajoie J, Ophir M, Tchou J, Marchion D, Luca VC, Bobrowicz P, McLaughlin B, Eskiocak U, Schmidt M, Cubillos-Ruiz JR, Rodriguez PC, Gabrilovich DI, Conejo-Garcia JR. 2020. BTN3A1 governs antitumor responses by coordinating αβ and γδ T cells. Science. Aug 21;369(6506):942-949.
Biswas S*, Mandal G*, Roy Chowdhury S, Purohit S, Payne KK, Anadon C, Gupta A, Swanson P, Yu X, Conejo-Garcia JR, Bhattacharyya A. 2019. Exosomes Produced by Mesenchymal Stem Cells Drive Differentiation of Myeloid Cells into Immunosuppressive M2-Polarized Macrophages in Breast Cancer. Journal of Immunology. Dec 15;203(12):3447-3460. (*Co-first authors).