MD/PhD Student, Washington University in St. Louis. Metabolism, cancer, infectious diseases, and global health @WUSTLmstp Trainee in the DeNardo Lab

Joined November 2019
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Blake Sells retweeted
A dual therapy that targets conventional #dendritic cells can boost T cell-mediated antitumor immunity in #PancreaticCancer, according to a new study involving patient samples and mice. @DeNardoLabWUSM Learn more in Science #Immunology: scim.ag/3UZwFHM
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Blake Sells retweeted
Skin fat plays by its own rules. We trace lineages (CellTagging), classify cell identity (Capybara), and model fate decisions (CellOracle) in our new Cell Stem Cell paper. It’s not a linear path. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2025.…
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Blake Sells retweeted
1. Tertiary Lymphoid Structures (TLSs) – on demand lymphoid aggregates that assemble in inflamed tissues/cancer to regulate immunity   But how? What molecule triggers? What cells induce?   TODAY in @Nature nature.com/articles/s41586-0…   Long-term #PDAC survivor PART4 – TLSs   🧵1/25

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Blake Sells retweeted
New @NatureCancer paper from @SearsRosie @coussens_lisa and colleagues @OHSUKnight address the clinical question of why patients with #PancreaticCancer associated with lung only metastatic disease have a better prognosis than liver metastases. The answer lies in the ability to tolerate replication stress and the limited T cell immune response that accompanies such tolerance.
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Blake Sells retweeted
Thrilled to share our story out in Cancer Cell, led by the amazing Kay Hanggi (now on the job market). We show that necrotic forms of cell death and the subsequent release of IL1a drives myeloid-based immune suppression in models of breast cancer. (1/11) cell.com/cancer-cell/abstrac…
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Blake Sells retweeted
Many thanks to @DeNardoLabWUSM for their spotlight article on our cDC1 vaccine. 👉cell.com/trends/pharmacologi… ICYMI: our work in @ScienceMagazine by @krishnaniyer199 and colleagues: cDC1 vaccine facilitates curative immunotherapy in PDAC. 👉 science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…

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Blake Sells retweeted
Exciting to see this publication come out of the @PanCAN Therapeutic Accelerator Collaborative Awards - exactly what we set out to do. pancan.org/research/grants-p…
New @ScienceTM paper from @DeNardoLabWUSM (with @LabBeatty @bryant_kl & @VerastemOncolog) Stromal reprogramming overcomes resistance to RAS-MAPK inhibition to improve #PancreaticCancer responses to cytotoxic and immune therapy science.org/doi/10.1126/scit…
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Blake Sells retweeted
New @ScienceTM paper from @DeNardoLabWUSM (with @LabBeatty @bryant_kl & @VerastemOncolog) Stromal reprogramming overcomes resistance to RAS-MAPK inhibition to improve #PancreaticCancer responses to cytotoxic and immune therapy science.org/doi/10.1126/scit…
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Blake Sells retweeted
Congratulations Dr. Liu @SitemanCenter and collaborators @LabBeatty and K.Bryant on their featured article in @ScienceTM . And HUDGE THANKS to @PanCAN for bringing this team together and funding the trial that came out of the science with @verastemoncology.
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Blake Sells retweeted
Congratulations Dr. Liu and collaborators @LabBeatty and K.Bryant on their featured article in @ScienceTM. And HUDGE THANKS to @PanCAN for bringing this team together and funding the trial that came out of the science with @verastemoncology
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Blake Sells retweeted
A new generation of cancer-preventing vaccines could wipe out tumors before they form. Learn more: scim.ag/8o0 @NewsfromScience #ScienceMagArchives
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Blake Sells retweeted
Congratulations @mle_butka on a successful PhD defense today! 🎓🍾
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Blake Sells retweeted
A6: A study by @ItaiYanai & team shows tumor cells adapt to anticancer drug treatments by a series of cellular state transitions, each inducing distinct gene expression programs. They utilized scRNA-seq, ST, systematic genetic perturbations, ML techniques nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Blake Sells retweeted
Deep Metabolic Profiling of Immune Cells by Spectral Flow Cytometry – A Comprehensive Validation Approach dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4896…
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Blake Sells retweeted
[1/2] IFNγ produced by γδ T cells stimulates ⬆️pancreatic β cells glucose-induced insulin release that ⬇️hepatic glucose output that ⬆️IFN-I levels by curtailing lactate inhibition of IRF3 & NF-κB signaling to aid responsiveness to viral pathogens nature.com/articles/s41590-0…
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Blake Sells retweeted
Intriguing paper in this week's Science: a new, much cheaper approach for MRI scanning It's an MRI scanner that uses a 0.05 Tesla magnet (vs. the current 1.5 - 3 T) and operates at a fraction of the cost (~$22,000 for the hardware), time (<10 minutes), and noise of a current MRI scanner Unlike current MRIs, the prototype scanner plugs into a standard wall socket, and doesn't need specialist shielding equipment It uses a deep learning (AI) strategy to improve the low signal-noise ratio that's inherent to lower field strength MRIs Although the images from the 0.05 T approach aren't as good as from 3 T MRI, they don't seem to be far off Zhao et al: science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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Blake Sells retweeted
“Fungi in cancer” on the cover of Nature Reviews Cancer. Perspective below: nature.com/articles/s41568-0…
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Blake Sells retweeted
Cool “bugs as drugs” preprint from @KenOliveLab to start off your Monday. Really great stuff Ken (who is on a roll!) Tumor-selective treatment of metastatic #PancreaticCancer with an engineered, probiotic living drug biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… Photomicrograph showing acylhomoserine lactone activated engineered bacteria localized within primary & metastatic disease sites.
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