Research Summary

The Spitzer Lab is working to develop our understanding of how the immune system coordinates its responses across the organism with an emphasis on tumor immunology. We combine methods in experimental immunology and cancer biology with computation to understand the modes in which the immune system can respond to tumors and to rationally initiate curative immune responses against cancer.

Research Funding

  • September 21, 2016 - August 31, 2021 - Quantitatively modeling immune responses to cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: DP5OD023056
  • July 15, 2017 - May 31, 2019 - Single-cell High-dimensional Characterization of the Bone Marrow Microenvironment in Health and Disease , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21AG057224
  • September 30, 2014 - September 29, 2018 - Revealing the tumor-immune network by mass cytometry , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: F31CA189331

Education

Georgetown University, B.S., 05/2011, Biology
Stanford University, Ph.D., 03/2016, Immunology

Honors & Awards

  • 2008-2011
    National Merit Scholarship Recipient
  • 2009
    Student-Athlete Academic Honors, Georgetown University
  • 2009-2011
    Baker Scholar, Georgetown University
  • 2010
    Reardon Fellow, Georgetown University
  • 2010
    Phi Beta Kappa
  • 2010-2011
    Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Scholar, Georgetown University
  • 2010-2011
    Taylor-Weber Memorial Scholar, Georgetown University
  • 2011
    Sigma Xi Medal for Most Outstanding Undergraduate Research, Georgetown University
  • 2011
    Summa Cum Laude, Georgetown University
  • 2011-2014
    George D. Smith Stanford Graduate Fellow, Stanford University
  • 2014-2016
    NIH/NCI NRSA F31 Fellow
  • 2016-2021
    Sandler Faculty Fellow, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2016-2021
    Sean N. Parker Faculty Fellow, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2016-2021
    Early Independence Award, Office of the Director, NIH

Selected Publications

  1. Escalante V, Nayak RR, Noecker C, Babdor J, Spitzer M, Deutschbauer AM, Turnbaugh PJ. Simvastatin induces human gut bacterial cell surface genes. Mol Microbiol. 2023 Sep 15.  View on PubMed
  2. Wheeler BD, Gagnon JD, Zhu WS, Muñoz-Sandoval P, Wong SK, Simeonov DR, Li Z, Debarge R, Spitzer MH, Marson A, Ansel KM. The lncRNA Malat1 Inhibits miR-15/16 to Enhance Cytotoxic T Cell Activation and Memory Cell Formation. bioRxiv. 2023 Jul 29.  View on PubMed
  3. Guldberg SM, Okholm TLH, McCarthy EE, Spitzer MH. Computational Methods for Single-Cell Proteomics. Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci. 2023 08 10; 6:47-71.  View on PubMed
  4. Rahim MK, Okholm TLH, Jones KB, McCarthy EE, Liu CC, Yee JL, Tamaki SJ, Marquez DM, Tenvooren I, Wai K, Cheung A, Davidson BR, Johri V, Samad B, O'Gorman WE, Krummel MF, van Zante A, Combes AJ, Angelo M, Fong L, Algazi AP, Ha P, Spitzer MH. Dynamic CD8+ T cell responses to cancer immunotherapy in human regional lymph nodes are disrupted in metastatic lymph nodes. Cell. 2023 03 16; 186(6):1127-1143.e18.  View on PubMed
  5. Allen GM, Frankel NW, Reddy NR, Bhargava HK, Yoshida MA, Stark SR, Purl M, Lee J, Yee JL, Yu W, Li AW, Garcia KC, El-Samad H, Roybal KT, Spitzer MH, Lim WA. Synthetic cytokine circuits that drive T cells into immune-excluded tumors. Science. 2022 12 16; 378(6625):eaba1624.  View on PubMed
  6. Ricardo-Gonzalez RR, Kotas ME, O'Leary CE, Singh K, Damsky W, Liao C, Arouge E, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Schroeder AW, Cohen JN, Fassett MS, Lee J, Daniel SG, Bittinger K, Díaz RE, Fraser JS, Ali N, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH, Liang HE, Locksley RM. Innate type 2 immunity controls hair follicle commensalism by Demodex mites. Immunity. 2022 10 11; 55(10):1891-1908.e12.  View on PubMed
  7. Burnett CE, Okholm TLH, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Tamaki S, Munoz Sandoval P, Willmore A, UCSF COMET Consortium, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Langelier CR, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Calfee CS, Erle DJ, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH. Mass cytometry reveals a conserved immune trajectory of recovery in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Immunity. 2022 07 12; 55(7):1284-1298.e3.  View on PubMed
  8. McCarthy EE, Odorizzi PM, Lutz E, Smullin CP, Tenvooren I, Stone M, Simmons G, Hunt PW, Feeney ME, Norris PJ, Busch MP, Spitzer MH, Rutishauser RL. A cytotoxic-skewed immune set point predicts low neutralizing antibody levels after Zika virus infection. Cell Rep. 2022 05 17; 39(7):110815.  View on PubMed
  9. Reticker-Flynn NE, Zhang W, Belk JA, Basto PA, Escalante NK, Pilarowski GOW, Bejnood A, Martins MM, Kenkel JA, Linde IL, Bagchi S, Yuan R, Chang S, Spitzer MH, Carmi Y, Cheng J, Tolentino LL, Choi O, Wu N, Kong CS, Gentles AJ, Sunwoo JB, Satpathy AT, Plevritis SK, Engleman EG. Lymph node colonization induces tumor-immune tolerance to promote distant metastasis. Cell. 2022 05 26; 185(11):1924-1942.e23.  View on PubMed
  10. Singh A, Spitzer MH, Joy JP, Kaileh M, Qiu X, Nolan GP, Sen R. Postmitotic G1 phase survivin drives mitogen-independent cell division of B lymphocytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 05 03; 119(18):e2115567119.  View on PubMed
  11. Fragiadakis GK, Bjornson-Hooper ZB, Madhireddy D, Sachs K, Chen H, McIlwain DR, Spitzer MH, Bendall SC, Nolan GP. Variation of Immune Cell Responses in Humans Reveals Sex-Specific Coordinated Signaling Across Cell Types. Front Immunol. 2022; 13:867016.  View on PubMed
  12. Potempa M, Aguilar OA, Gonzalez-Hinojosa MDR, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Spitzer MH, Lanier LL. Influence of Self-MHC Class I Recognition on the Dynamics of NK Cell Responses to Cytomegalovirus Infection. J Immunol. 2022 04 01; 208(7):1742-1754.  View on PubMed
  13. Burnett CE, Okholm TLH, Tenvooren I, Marquez DM, Tamaki S, Sandoval PM, UCSF COMET Consortium, Calfee CS, Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Langelier CR, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Ansel KM, Spitzer MH. A conserved immune trajectory of recovery in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. bioRxiv. 2022 Mar 16.  View on PubMed
  14. Bjornson-Hooper ZB, Fragiadakis GK, Spitzer MH, Chen H, Madhireddy D, Hu K, Lundsten K, McIlwain DR, Nolan GP. A Comprehensive Atlas of Immunological Differences Between Humans, Mice, and Non-Human Primates. Front Immunol. 2022; 13:867015.  View on PubMed
  15. Ishiyama K, Arakawa-Hoyt J, Aguilar OA, Damm I, Towfighi P, Sigdel T, Tamaki S, Babdor J, Spitzer MH, Reed EF, Sarwal MM, Lanier LL, CMV Systems Immunobiology Group. Mass cytometry reveals single-cell kinetics of cytotoxic lymphocyte evolution in CMV-infected renal transplant patients. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 02 22; 119(8).  View on PubMed
  16. Gonzalez H, Mei W, Robles I, Hagerling C, Allen BM, Hauge Okholm TL, Nanjaraj A, Verbeek T, Kalavacherla S, van Gogh M, Georgiou S, Daras M, Phillips JJ, Spitzer MH, Roose JP, Werb Z. Cellular architecture of human brain metastases. Cell. 2022 02 17; 185(4):729-745.e20.  View on PubMed
  17. Im K, Combes AJ, Spitzer MH, Satpathy AT, Krummel MF. Archetypes of checkpoint-responsive immunity. Trends Immunol. 2021 11; 42(11):960-974.  View on PubMed
  18. Dong S, Hiam-Galvez KJ, Mowery CT, Herold KC, Gitelman SE, Esensten JH, Liu W, Lares AP, Leinbach AS, Lee M, Nguyen V, Tamaki SJ, Tamaki W, Tamaki CM, Mehdizadeh M, Putnam AL, Spitzer MH, Ye CJ, Tang Q, Bluestone JA. The effect of low-dose IL-2 and Treg adoptive cell therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes. JCI Insight. 2021 09 22; 6(18).  View on PubMed
  19. Hwang B, Lee DS, Tamaki W, Sun Y, Ogorodnikov A, Hartoularos GC, Winters A, Yeung BZ, Nazor KL, Song YS, Chow ED, Spitzer MH, Ye CJ. SCITO-seq: single-cell combinatorial indexed cytometry sequencing. Nat Methods. 2021 08; 18(8):903-911.  View on PubMed
  20. Sinha M, Zhang L, Subudhi S, Chen B, Marquez J, Liu EV, Allaire K, Cheung A, Ng S, Nguyen C, Friedlander TW, Aggarwal R, Spitzer M, Allison JP, Small EJ, Sharma P, Fong L. Pre-existing immune status associated with response to combination of sipuleucel-T and ipilimumab in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. J Immunother Cancer. 2021 05; 9(5).  View on PubMed

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