Blake Sells

Program: Cancer Biology

Current advisor: David G. DeNardo, PhD

Undergraduate university: Duke University, 2019

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
The impact of immunotherapy on cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype and function in the tumor microenvironment

I am currently working in the lab of David DeNardo, PhD, where I study how immunotherapy influences cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype, extracellular matrix deposition, and interaction with immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. I am utilizing in vitro and in vivo models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma to study cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity.

Graduate publications
Belle JI, Sen D, Baer JM, Liu X, Lander VE, Ye J, Sells BE, Knolhoff BL, Faiz A, Kang LI, Qian G, Fields RC, Ding L, Kim H, Provenzano PP, Stewart SA, DeNardo DG. 2024 Senescence defines a distinct subset of myofibroblasts that orchestrates immunosuppression in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Discov, 14(7):1324-55. PMCID:

Schwaiger-Haber M, Stancliffe E, Anbukumar DS, Sells B, Yi J, Cho K, Adkins-Travis K, Chheda MG, Shriver LP, Patti GJ. 2023 Using mass spectrometry imaging to map fluxes quantitatively in the tumor ecosystem. Nat Commun, 14(1):2876. PMCID: PMC10199024