Emilie Warren awarded 2022 Rochfort Scholarship
SEPTEMBER 2022
General surgery resident Emilie Warren, MD, has been awarded the Winship Cancer Institute's 2022 Chester Rochfort Scholarship in Oncology.
The Rochfort Scholarship aims to assist young MD degree holders in cancer research. The scholarship is $10,000 for one year and intended to help cover partial salary, laboratory, or other research expenses or travel.
Dr. Warren's project title is "CD4+CD26+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes represent a novel strategy to improve the efficacy of adoptive T cell transfer therapy in cholangiocarcinoma," and her mentors for the study will be Shishir K. Maithel, MD, Director of the Katz Foundation Research Program in Surgical Oncology at Winship; Chrystal M. Paulos, PhD, Director of Translational Research for Cutaneous Malignancies at Winship; and Gregory B. Lesinski, PhD, MPH, Winship's Associate Director for Basic Research and Shared Resources.
Using mouse models of cholangiocarcinoma, Dr. Warren and her mentor team will work to further characterize the tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte population. They will then isolate a novel subset of these cells, which have been shown to have potent tumor-killing properties and superior long-term persistence, to reinfuse back into a tumor-bearing mouse as an adoptive T cell therapy.