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Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment by harnessing the power of the body’s immune system. However, many patients do not respond to available therapies, highlighting an urgent need to identify new immunosuppressive pathways and therapeutic targets. We discovered that production of adenosine by the CD39-CD73 axis is an important immune checkpoint that promote cancer. With support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, we are defining the molecular ecosystem governing adenosine-mediated effects in cancer. Specifically, we study the impact of the adenosine production via CD39 and CD73 and transport across ENT1 and ENT2 in various immune cell populations.

We also leverage large multi-omics datasets to identify new mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance. We work closely with collaborators of the Terry Fox Institute Marathon-of-Hope Cancer Centers network, the Francis Crick Institute and Roche’s immunotherapy Centers of Research Excellence (imCORE). Our consortium allows us to investigate, at an unprecedented level, the landscape of genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic associations with immunotherapy clinical responses.