Russell Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D.
To develop novel therapeutic strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance in melanoma and other cancers.
Research Interest
I am a physician-scientist medical oncologist with a clinical focus on melanoma and cutaneous malignancies. My research is focused on the development of novel therapeutic strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance in melanoma and other cancers. In addition to established in vivo and in vitro models of cancer, my lab utilizes novel patient-derived tumor models. Our patient-derived organotypic tumor spheroids (PDOTS) platform involves ex vivo 3D microfluidic culture of multicellular tumor spheroids from tumor explants that retain native tumor-infiltrating immune and stromal elements. PDOTS profiling enables evaluation of tumor-immune dynamics in response to therapeutic pressure using clinically relevant biospecimens for preclinical and clinical applications.