I received my PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California studying innate and adaptive immune influences in Alzheimer’s disease and medulloblastomas using a broad range of in vivo and in vitro assays. As a postdoctoral scholar embedded in D2B and in Dr. Matthew Krummel’s lab, I work on understanding how the immune system influences immune checkpoint blockade therapeutic efficacy in melanoma patients. Specifically, I investigate whether key spatial immune cell neighborhoods within tumors promote or hinder antitumor immunity during immune checkpoint blockade therapy at the transcriptomic and proteomic level. Understanding how these groups of cells infiltrate, stabilize, and function within the tumor progresses us towards better therapeutic strategies and ultimately enhances tumor cure rates.