Research Summary
Dr. Taube’s research interests center on the immune evasion by solid tumors, specifically studying the PD-L1/PD-1 axis, and the identification of potential biomarkers that can help pre-select patients with advanced malignancies for novel immunotherapeutic treatment regimens. This requires a focus on immunohistochemical and molecular methods for identifying cell surface antigens and signaling pathways in paraffin-embedded tissue. Dr. Taube’s lab described PD-L1 (B7-H1)-mediated adaptive immune resistance by melanoma, a finding which has now been extended to other tumor types. Dr. Taube’s laboratory also developed the PD-L1 immunohistochemical assay and scoring system for the first in-human anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 immunotherapies, versions of which are now FDA approved. Ongoing laboratory efforts focus on further characterizing the local, pre-treatment tumor microenvironment with the aim of developing rational treatment combinations and improving patient selection algorithms for immunotherapeutic regimens. To that end, Dr. Taube has been collaborating with Dr. Szalay, a world expert in Astronomy and Big Data, to develop a new multispectral tissue imaging platform termed ‘AstroPath’ to further biomarker development.
Selected Publications
Berry S, Giraldo NA, Green BF, Cottrell TR, Stein JE, Engle EL, Xu H, Ogurtsova A, Roberts C, Wang D, Nguyen P, Zhu Q, Soto-Diaz S, Loyola J, Sander IB, Wong PF, Jessel S, Doyle J, Signer D, Wilton R, Roskes JS, Eminizer M, Park S, Sunshine JC, Jaffee EM, Baras A, De Marzo AM, Topalian SL, Kluger H, Cope L, Lipson EJ, Danilova L, Anders RA, Rimm DL, Pardoll DM, Szalay AS, Taube JM. Analysis of multispectral imaging with the AstroPath platform informs efficacy of PD-1 blockade. Science. 2021;372(6547):eaba2609
Lu S, Stein JE, Rimm DL, Wang DW, Bell JW, Johnson DB, Sosman JA, Schalper KA, Anders RA, Wang H, Hoyt C, Pardoll DM, Danilova L, Taube JM. Comparison of Biomarker Modalities for Predicting Response to PD-(L)1 Checkpoint Blockade: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Oncol. 2019 Jul 18.[Epub ahead of print]
Taube JM, Klein A, Brahmer JR, Xu H, Pan X, Kim JH, Chen L, Pardoll DM, Topalian SL, Anders RA. Association of PD-1, PD-1 ligands, and other features of the tumor immune microenvironment with response to anti-PD-1 therapy. Clin Cancer Res. 2014;20(19):5064-74
Taube JM, Anders RA, Young GD, Xu H, Sharma R, Klien A, Topalian SL, Chen L. Colocalization of inflammatory response with B7-H1 [PD-L1] expression in human melanocytic lesions supports an adaptive resistance mechanism of immune escape. Sci Transl Med. 2012;4(127):127ra37
Deutsch JS, Cimino-Mathews A, Thompson E, Provencio M, Forde PM, Spicer J, Girard N, Wang D, Anders RA, Gabrielson E, Illei P, Jedrych J, Danilova L, Sunshine J, Kerr KM, Tran M, Bushong J, Cai J, Devas V, Neely J, Balli D, Cottrell TR, Baras AS, Taube JM. Association between pathologic response and survival after neoadjuvant therapy in lung cancer. Nat Med. 2024;30(1):218-28
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