Event

CeMMinar with Alice Kamphorst

Title: Determinants of response to immune checkpoint blockade

Speaker: Alice Kamphorst

Affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

When? 23 November, 2 pm

Where? Large seminar room, level 8, CeMM

Hosts: Barbara Maier, Clarissa Campbell, Georg Stary

Biosketch:

Alice Kamphorst is an immunologist whose research focuses on how costimulation, cellular interactions, and the microenvironment regulate adaptive immunity, particularly T cell differentiation and responses to cancer immunotherapy. She trained with Michel Nussenzweig, studying antigen presentation and the functional specialization of dendritic and myeloid cell subsets, and later with Rafi Ahmed, where she conducted extensive research on T cell biology.

Her work has helped define how dysfunctional PD-1⁺ CD8 T cells can be reinvigorated during immunotherapy. In a landmark Science study in 2017, she demonstrated that CD28 costimulation is required for effective responses to PD-1 blockade. Her independent research has since examined how different costimulatory pathways shape progenitor-exhausted CD8 T cells, including studies published in Science Immunology and Immunity. Together with collaborators, she also developed uLIPSTIC, a system for unbiased in vivo labeling of cellular interactions, reported in Nature in 2024.

Kamphorst also investigates immune responses in hepatocellular carcinoma, integrating mechanistic studies with patient samples. Her work has identified T cell populations associated with response to neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade and more recently highlighted an important role for B cells in sustaining anti-tumor CD4 T cell responses.