Lab Updates
- Mandy Wang receives permission to defend her thesis in the spring of 2026!
- Mandy Wang receives the 2025 Duke OBGE Professional Development Award.
- Hanks awarded the 2024 AACR Grantee Summit Best Oral Presentation Award.
- Hanks Lab receives the 2024 Duke Department of Medicine Distinguished Research Publication Award.
- Hanks Lab receives a 2024 Mathers Foundation Award: The Hanks Lab receives a 2024 Mathers Foundation Award to study the role of NR4A1 in DC tolerization and tumor immunotherapy resistance.
- Hanks Lab receives V Foundation 30th Anniversary Gala Award: The Hanks Lab receives the V Foundation 30th Anniversary Gala Award for their work in cancer immunotherapy resistance. This award will support their work in understanding the role of mregDC-dependent expression of PCSK9 in directing resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
- Linda Cao, BS, graduates from Duke University with Distinction: Linda supported the Hanks Lab during her undergraduate tenure at Duke in various ways including a project focused on mechanisms utilized by MDSCs to suppress dendritic cell function. She will return in the summer of 2024 to start a post-bac year in the Hanks Lab.
- Hanks Lab receives a 2024 Department of Defense Mid-Career Accelerator Award: This award will support further work in understanding a potential role for the tumor-intrinsic NLRP3 inflammasome in tumor dormancy and relapse.
- Mahere Rezazadebazaz, PhD, joins the Hanks Lab: Dr. Rezazadebazaz brings expertise in molecular cloning to the Hanks Lab to support ongoing work on understanding dendritic cell tolerization mechanisms and developing strategies to reverse dendritic cell tolerization in vivo.
- Sohag Chakraborty, PhD, joins the Hanks Lab: Dr. Chakraborty will support our studies to elucidate the role of the tumor-intrinsic NLRP3 inflammasome in immune evasion in both colon cancer and gastric cancer while further supporting our studies evaluating NLRP3 inflammasome biomarkers in predicting immunotherapy response.
- Hanks Lab receives 2023 AACR-Debbie’s Dream Foundation Innovation and Discovery Grant: This work will explore the role of the tumor-intrinsic NLRP3 inflammasome pathway in immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance in gastric cancer. Read more about the research this funding will support.
- Hanks Lab receives 2023 Duke Cancer Institute Pilot Award: This award will support our collaboration with Dr. David Hsu (Duke) and our exploration of the role of the tumor-intrinsic NLRP3 inflammasome pathway in immunotherapy resistance in colon cancer.
- Maya Chandar joins the Hanks Lab: Maya is a Duke undergraduate who will be helping the Hanks Lab to establish a materials/reagents/specimen database. Maya will transition to an independent research project when she returns to the lab later in 2024.
- Michael Plebanek, PhD, receives a 2023 Duke Cancer Institute Young Investigator Award: This funding will support Michael’s investigation of the impact of the CD63+ mregDC population on clinical outcomes in melanoma patients.
- Mandy Wang, BS, receives a 2023 Precision Genomics Collaboratory Award: Mandy is studying how tumors utilize exosomes to suppress anti-tumor immunity.
- Hanks Lab Receives 2022 Melanoma Research Foundation Grant: Based on work led by Dr. Nick DeVito, this award will support for studies focused on the role of the Gli2 pathway in immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance in melanoma. Read more about the research this funding will support.
- Hanks Lab Receives 2022 Cancer Research Institute Clinical and Laboratory Integration Program Award: Based on work led by Dr. Bala Thievanthiran, this funding will support further studies investigating the underlying mechanisms of immunotherapy-associated toxicities. Read more about the research the funding will support.
- Kaylee Howell, BS, joins the Hanks Lab: Kaylee has joined the Hanks Lab to support many aspects of lab operations including clinical specimen acquisition and processing as well as mouse breeding and colony management. She will also be taking an active role in studies related to the Gli2 pathway in immune evasion as well as on the role of various inflammasomes in driving immunotherapy resistance.
- Yue Xue, PhD, joins the Hanks Lab: We are delighted that Dr. Xue is joining the Hanks Lab to support and extend our studies focused on understanding how cancers suppress anti-tumor immunity by inducing dendritic cell tolerization.
- Nick DeVito, MD, receives a 2022 Strong Start Award: Dr. DeVito has received a three-year Strong Start Award from the Duke School of Medicine to support ongoing studies focused on the role of EMT in driving immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance in colon cancer.
- Michael Plebanek, PhD, receives the 2021 Duke Cancer Institute Research Retreat Bell Award: Dr. Michael Plebanek was awarded the 2021 Duke Cancer Institute Research Retreat Bell Award for his work on characterizing a novel population of tolerogenic dendritic cells associated with a variety of cancers.
- Nick DeVito, MD, receives a 2021 Fund to Retain Physician Scientists Award: The 2021 Fund to Retain Physician Scientists Award will support ongoing work examining the role of EMT in tumor-mediated immune evasion.
- Bala Thievanthiran, PhD, receives a 2021 NIH/NCI Diversity Supplement Award: Dr. Thievanthiran was awarded a 2021 NIH/NCI Diversity Supplement Award to support his ongoing work characterizing a tumor-intrinsic adaptive resistance pathway to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy involving the NLRP3 inflammasome.
- Nagendra Yarla, PhD, joins the Hanks Lab: Dr. Yarla will be expanding the labs’ efforts in investigating immunotherapy resistance mechanisms in melanoma and the gastrointestinal malignancies.
- Y-Van Nguyen, BS, joins the Hanks Lab: Y-Van is a graduate from the Biology program at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She will play a major role in supporting our work in tumor-mediated dendritic cell tolerogenesis.
- The Hanks Lab receives ASCO/CCF funding: The Hanks Lab has been awarded the 2021 Advanced Clinical Research Award in Tumor Immunotherapy to investigate the role of the tumor NLRP3 inflammasome in immunotherapy resistance based on an upcoming investigator-initiated clinical trial in anti-PD-1-resistant melanoma conducted in collaboration with Dr. April Salama.
- The Hanks Lab receives DoD funding: The Hanks Lab has received an Idea Award from the DoD Melanoma Program to investigate and characterize tumor-mediated dendritic cell tolerization.
- The Hanks Lab receives NIH R01 funding: The Hanks Lab has been awarded a NIH/NCI R01 grant to investigate a tumor-intrinsic mechanism of immunotherapy toxicity.
- The Hanks Lab receives Merck OTSP funding: The Hanks Lab receives funding to investigate a tumor-intrinsic mechanism of adaptive resistance to pembrolizumab in gastroesophageal cancer.
- Mandy Wang, BS, joins the Hanks Lab: Mandy is a Duke graduate student that will be investigating the role of tumor exosomes in the tolerization of dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment.
- The Hanks Lab receives NIH R01/R37 funding.
- Linda Cao joins the Hanks Lab: Linda is a Duke undergraduate student in the Biology and Global Health Programs. She will provide key support to the lab while also spearheading her own project in tumor immunology.