The QBI/SBI Seminar Series presents Kimberly Luddy, Senior Research Project Specialist in the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Kimberly Luddy is an experimental and theoretical immunologist working at the interface of evolutionary biology and cancer immunology. Kimberly completed her PhD in immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland with Prof Cliona O’Farrelly focusing on the ecology of cancer immunology. She currently works in the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Robert Gatenby. For the past 10 years Kimberly has worked on interdisciplinary teams alongside physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and evolutionary biologists with the goal of driving a systems biology approach to immune oncology.

Reductionist immunology has answered many foundational questions. However, the immune system is complex, and outcomes are often context dependent. Therefore, it is imperative we utilize a systems biology view grounded in biological first principles. In her talk Kimberly will show how she and her collaborators navigate interdisciplinary work that includes immune oncology, mathematical modeling, and evolutionary biology. She will discuss novel applications of evolution and ecological principles in cancer immunology including the use of artificial selection to breed for tumor resistance, gene conservation of immune-relevant genes in tumor samples, and an ecological view of cancer immunotherapy resistance.

Talk Title: Team science in modern cancer immunology: embracing complexity thru collaboration

Host: J. Silvio Gutkind, Ph.D.

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://ucsf.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0EGg0C0zRcqvnwg48qntQw