Media contact: Beena Thannickal
Jessy Deshane, Ph.D.Jessy Deshane, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was awarded a GeoMx Cancer Transcriptome Atlas Grant from NanoString Technologies following an international competition with more than 150 applicants. This grant will give Deshane the opportunity to use NanoString’s cutting-edge cancer research technology that is offered at very few institutions.
As a scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Deshane primarily studies lung cancer. Now, her award-winning project seeks to evaluate the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures, which could negatively impact the way targeted drugs attack cancer cells in patient-derived, 3D tissue-engineered models of human non-small-cell lung cancer.
“We are excited that we have the opportunity to pioneer this at UAB and hope O’Neal Cancer Center researchers will have access to this technology in the near future,” Deshane said. “With this technology, we will be able to define functional changes in local immune populations and better define the impact of tertiary lymphoid structures on the response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy within our model system.”
Learn more about the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler that Deshane and her team will use for this innovative lung cancer research.