Advanced prostate cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers in men, and current immunotherapies have shown only limited success. One reason is that tumors do not act alone: they reshape the body’s immune system both locally and throughout the body, creating conditions that suppress immune responses and help cancer spread. 

Dr. Chryplewicz has spent her career studying how tumors manipulate immune cells. During her PhD work in Switzerland, she helped discover innovative strategies that turned treatment-resistant tumors into ones responsive to immunotherapy, leading to a clinical trial in patients. Her research has also uncovered entirely new molecules involved in immune suppression and helped launch a biotechnology company focused on cancer therapies. 

In this project, Dr. Chryplewicz will investigate how prostate tumors communicate with distant organs such as bone marrow to influence the production and behavior of immune cells. Using advanced mouse models, organoid systems, and single-cell technologies, she will trace how immune-suppressive cells develop and migrate into tumors. 

By uncovering the signals that allow tumors to weaken the immune system, her research could identify new strategies to block immune suppression and make immunotherapies more effective for prostate cancer patients. Her findings may also reveal broader principles of how cancers reshape the immune system throughout the body.

Mentor

Charles Sawyers, PhD

Projects and Grants

Identifying oncogenic signals that drive aberrant myelopoiesis and systemic immunosuppression in prostate cancer