BMC Seminar - Immunomodulatory gene expression in melanoma

BMC Seminar Thursday 6th February at 12:30 in Askja, room N-132

Speaker: Teitur Sævarsson, PhD student in the research group of Berglind Ósk Einarsdóttir, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland

Title: The role of differentiation in immunomodulatory gene expression in melanoma

Abstract: Melanoma cells frequently dedifferentiate in response to inflammation which can increase responses to certain cytokines. The proinflammatory cytokine Interferon-γ (IFNγ) is an integral part of anti-tumor immune responses and can directly induce both differentiational changes and expression of immunosuppressive proteins in melanoma cells. How the differentiation status of melanoma cells affects IFNγ responses remains unclear. In this talk, I will first describe our recently published results showing that inducing dedifferentiation in melanoma cells can increase expression of immunomodulatory genes following IFNγ treatment. Next, I will describe a co-culture system we are establishing in our lab to study the interaction of cancer cells and immune cells in vitro using TCR-redirected T cells, with the aim of glimpsing the functional relevance of our results.

Ref: 10.1186/s12964-024-01963-6