Xanne H
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at Duke University
Expertise
Immunology, brain tumor; T cell exhaustion; immunotherary; clinical trials; CRISPR technology, gene therapy, immune cell recovery following bone marrow transplant
Bio
Hey everyone, Thank you so much for visiting my profile. I love research and I really enjoy helping young scientists dive into the world of research! My main area of expertise is the immune system, especially topics related to how the immune system interacts with cancer and infections. I have also been in labs that studied defective immune systems (such as SCID, better known as bubble boy disease) and was part of a lab that looks at using DNA editing tools to cure diseases such as sickle cell disease. A little bit of personal information about me. I have a bachelors of science (2011), completed medical school (MD 2016) and a PhD (2024). After I completed my MD, I realized that I wanted to do research to develop new treatment strategies. I quickly realized that I wanted to focus on immunology because the immune system is involved in basically every disease. I love the complexity of the way a body mounts an immune response against invaders and, at the same time, prevents the immune system from attacking its own tissues (most of the time). After joining my lab at Duke, I started studying the immune response to brain cancer. Ultimately, I hope that my findings help make treatments for brain cancer patients more effective. Although my focus in my PhD was on the immune response to cancer, I love thinking about other immune-related diseases, including autoimmune diseases and vaccine strategies. I love to watch sports (particularly baseball and football) and being outside (hiking, camping). I recently started rock climbing!Project ideas
Literature review on understanding immune responses in cancer
The immune system is very good at detecting invaders (bacteria, viruses, parasites). Over the last couple of years, we have also learned that the immune system provides an important protection against the development of cancer. Unfortunately, sometimes the immune system is unable to completely destroy a tumor. When this happens, the immune system will be continuously activated and this results in an "exhausted" cell. This exhausted cell is less capable to destroying tumor cells, allowing the tumor to grow and spread. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of immunology and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Gene editing as a treatment for sickle cell disease
Sickle cell anemia is a debilitating disease that causes patients excruciating pain, among many other symptoms. Patients with sickle cell disease often have shorter life spans than healthy people. Interestingly, sickle cell anemia is caused by a single nucleotide mutation in the DNA. This has led researchers to try to cure the disease by fixing the mutation on a genetic level using a relatively new technique called CRISPR. This technique allows us to make very specific edits to the DNA that can result in a lifelong cure. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of genetic diseases and gene editing approaches and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer
Ever since scientists discovered that the immune system is capable of fighting cancer, treatments harnessing its power have been developed. One of the main cell types responsible for fighting tumors are T cells. Researchers have been successful in making T cells from a patient specific for the tumor. These treatments are called CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) and have been very successful, especially against blood cancers (such as leukemia). Another potential treatment is to treat patients with immune checkpoint blockade, such as anti-PD1 or anti-CTLA4. When T cells are present in the tumor for an extended period of time, they increase the expression of receptors (such as PD1 and CTLA4) that can decrease T cell function and make them less capable of destroying tumors. Immune checkpoint blockade can reduce this negative signaling, making T cells more functional. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of immunology and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Understanding how cells in the tumor affect tumor growth
When researchers evaluate the cells present in a tumor, there are generally two main classes: cells that help the tumor grow (pro-tumor) and those that try to destroy the tumor (anti-tumor). As we start to learn more about which cell types are present in the tumor, we start to understand how the tumor evades our bodies natural defenses. These insights can also be used to develop new treatment strategies for patients with cancer. Writing a review on this topic will provide you with a thorough understanding of many aspects of immunology and gives you the opportunity to publish in a journal like Emerging investigators (or others)
Understanding autoimmune diseases
The immune system is a very complicated organ. The development of immune cells is very tightly regulated with multiple fail-safe mechanisms in place. The immune system needs to be able to respond to any foreign pathogen, but at the same time cannot attack our own bodies. Unfortunately, the mechanisms in place to protect the body are sometimes not enough, the immune system can start attacking internal organs, resulting in an autoimmune disease. In this project, you can decide to focus on a specific autoimmune disease or autoimmune diseases in general. We will dive into the development of the immune system, places where things go wrong, understand outside factors that can influence the development of autoimmune diseases, and research treatment options.
Understanding vaccine responses
Children get vaccinated against all sorts of diseases during early childhood. As we get older, vaccines are more commonly administered if you travel or against the flu. However, as the world shut down in 2020 because of a highly contagious virus (COVID), even adults became acutely aware of the need for vaccination. In this project, you will learn about the immune system and how it functions. Furthermore, we will determine how vaccines work and how it protects the body from disease. Finally, we can explore diseases that still require the development of vaccines and the pros/cons of the various vaccine strategies and compounds.
Understanding immunodeficiencies and how to treat them
We tend to underestimate the importance of our immune system and really only realize it is there when we have a cold or something similar. However, some children are born without an immune system. This makes them very prone to any type of infection, and when they do get sick, it's a potentially life-threatening condition. Over the last decades, we have made much progress treating these patients. We can use stem cell transplants to cure the disease. Sometimes, we can even fix the problem in the patients own stem cells by using a technique called gene editing. This project will allow you to explore the world of immunodeficiences and current and potentially up and coming therapies!