I’m a microbiologist who’s passionate about immune signaling.
Meet Aaron Whiteley, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Dr. Whiteley earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, before completing postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.
After establishing his independent lab in 2020, Dr. Whiteley has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms and evolution of immune signaling. Over the past decade, his research has helped reveal that some of the pathways critical to human health actually originated in bacteria more than a billion years ago. One of these pathways is now recognized as a critical driver of successful cancer immunotherapy.
With his recently awarded Cancer Research Institute (CRI) STAR award, Dr. Whiteley and his team will focus on newly discovered bacterial enzymes capable of activating this critical pathway, with the long-term goal of translating this communication between bacteria and human cells. This “Rosetta Stone” for bacteria-immune interactions may help design customized probiotics that can boost anti-cancer immunity and improve patient responses to immunotherapies.
The STAR program is designed for scientists like Dr. Whiteley who pursue high-risk, high-reward questions that could open entirely new frontiers in immunotherapy. Instead of requiring narrowly defined milestones, the program provides flexible funding that gives investigators the freedom not only to think outside the box, but to go beyond it.
“The STAR award has inspired our lab to go all in on our ideas,” said 2025 STAR Edward Chuong, PhD, also from the University of Colorado Boulder. “The unrestricted support has allowed us to chase high-risk leads and provides an incredible chance to take big risks that have a chance of improving cancer immunotherapy.”
For Dr. Whiteley, the value of the STAR award lies in that freedom to pursue ideas that traditional funding often can’t support.
“When you’re constantly focused on how do I get a little bit more data to get the next grant, especially when those grants are coming from the National Institutes of Health, they are a little bit more risk-averse,” said Dr. Whiteley. “You can’t do the pie-in-the-sky paradigm-shifting experiments. This grant will enable us to push the limits, as it’s high risk, high reward. It is game-changing for my research program.”
That same spirit of curiosity extends beyond the laboratory. A recipient of multiple graduate mentoring awards, Dr. Whiteley is equally passionate about helping the next generation of scientists pursue ambitious ideas.
“If we look back at history, even 100 years ago at how bleak treating a disease like cancer was, and now I overhear patients in line at the supermarket saying they had gotten CAR T cell therapy, and I thought, could you imagine explaining that to someone from 100 years ago, even from 25 years ago? But that only happens if there’s another generation to keep moving the needle, keep pushing the envelope.”
From uncovering the ancient origins of our immune system to imagining entirely new ways to harness it against cancer, Dr. Whiteley embodies the bold thinking the STAR program was created to support. CRI is proud to invest in his vision — and in the discoveries that could redefine how we understand the relationship between microbes, immunity, and cancer.
