Alyssa Weinstein

Program: Cancer Biology

Current advisor: David G. DeNardo, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of New England, 2019

Enrollment year: 2023

Research summary
Determining Dendritic Cell Dysfunction in metastatic PDAC

Metastasis is highly prevalent in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), with the liver being the most common site of metastasis. Despite this, preclinical studies have largely focused on primary tumors, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of metastatic disease biology. The liver is a uniquely tolerogenic organ due to continuous exposure to gut-derived antigens. This tolerogenic environment may contribute to poorer clinical outcomes observed in liver metastases, including reduced overall survival and diminished therapeutic responses compared to metastases in other organs, such as the lung. My thesis work aims to determine mechanisms of dendritic cell dysfunction and their impact on T cell responses in PDAC liver metastasis, with the goal of identifying strategies to overcome immune suppression in metastatic PDAC.

Graduate publications
Hogg GD, Weinstein AG, Kingston NL, Liu X, Dres OM, Kang LI, Lander VE, Kao YL, Ahmad F, Knolhoff BL, Shenoy VV, Sells B, Jayasinghe RG, Houston A, Liu T, Herndon JM, Murphy KM, Ding L, Fields RC, Panni RZ, Hawkins WG, DeNardo DG. 2025 Combined Flt3L and CD40 agonism restores dendritic cell-driven T cell immunity in pancreatic cancer. Sci Immunol, 10(110):eadp3978. PMCID: