Xiaopeng Sun
Graduate Student, Balko Lab
Research Description:
My project in the Balko lab aims to discover peripheral blood cell markers related to immunotherapy outcome by performing single cell RNA sequencing on longitudinally-collected samples from a large clinical trial of chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy for early breast cancer. Signatures derived from this analysis could help guide therapeutic decision making for patients. Additionally, I will work on identifying target antigens of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced toxicity. A mechanistic understanding of the these immune-related adverse events will help us deploy this class of drugs to patients more safely, and potentially define therapeutic ways to reduce the risk of toxicity.