Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium
The Immune Solution to End Breast Cancer
The Transformative Breast Cancer Consortium (TBCC) consists of an integrated team of investigators. Our project groups were selected due to their extensive scientific interest and expertise, communication and collaborative research skills, and a shared perspective of their research goals
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
​​November 2024 (no monthly TBCC meeting due to holiday)
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11/11: ZOOM Meeting: Salon Hours (2 pm EST)
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11/21: ZOOM Prep for IPR Meeting (3 pm EST)​​​​
December 2024 (no monthly TBCC meeting due to holiday)
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12/5: ANNUAL DOD IPR Meeting 1:25pm EST (In Person)​​
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12/9: ZOOM Meeting: Salon Hours (2 pm EST)​​
January 2025
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1/13: ZOOM Meeting: Salon Hours (2 pm EST)
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1/23: ZOOM Meeting: TBCC BiAnnual Workshop (3 pm EST)
Project 1
Profiling the human breast tumor ecosystem to identify regulators of anti-tumor immunity
Patient Advocate Michele Atlan
Project 2
Dissecting the mechanisms of immune evasion employed by cancer drivers in breast cancer
Patient Advocate Michele Rakoff
Project 3
Targeting the epigenome as a therapeutic strategy for breast cancer
Patient Advocate Vernal Branch
Project 4
Study of the mammary myeloid regulation of T cells as a critical innate-adaptive immune checkpoint axis in the progression of BC
Patient Advocate Patty Spears
Project 5
A live biobank at inflexion points of triple negative breast cancer: the DIGNITY study
TBCC Funded
Seed Projects
Generation of a novel octo-genic immune tolerant mouse (Octo-NG) to better model syngeneic tumor studies in fully immune-competent mice for TBCC groups
Zachary Hartman, PhD and Timothy Trotter, PhD
Duke University
Discovery of a dual combination WNT and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade therapy for treatment resistant and metastatic HER2+ breast cancers.
Joshua C. Snyder, Ph.D., Chaitanya R. Acharya, Ph.D., Joshua D. Ginzel, & Alexander Borowsky, M.D.
Duke University and UC Davis
Creating a 3D TNBC model of PTEN deficiency to discover immunoregulatory tumor epitopes
Wen Shen, PhD
Weill Cornell Medical College
Investigation of IGHG4/IgG4 expression in Breast Cancer
Co-Teams: Simon Knott, PhD and Zachary Hartman, PhD
Cedars-Sinai and Duke University
Identifying microenvironmental determinants of reduced immune checkpoint blockade efficacy in bone
Timothy Trotter, PhD and Erika Crosby, PhD
Duke University
Exploring the IL33/ST2 Axis as a Target in Breast Cancer Therapy
Natalie Thomas and Amy Hobeika, PhD
Duke University
Overcoming Xenoantigen Immunity to Enable Cellular Tracking and Gene Regulation with Immune-competent "NoGlow" Mice
Trotter TN, Wilson A, McBane J, Dagotto CE, Yang XY, Wei JP, Lei G, Thrash H, Snyder JC, Lyerly HK, Hartman ZC. Cancer Res Commun. 2024 Apr 9;4(4):1050-1062.
Dormant tumors circumvent tumor-specific adaptive immunity by establishing a Treg-dominated niche via DKK3
Trotter TN, Dagotto CE, Serra D, Wang T, Yang X, Acharya CR, Wei J, Lei G, Lyerly HK, Hartman ZC. JCI Insight. 2023 Nov 22;8(22):e174458
Empowering anti-cancer immunity: CD27 activation drives memory CD4+ antigen specific T cell memory responses and is essential for anti-tumor immunity
Hwang BJ, Crosby E, Trotter T, Tsao LC, Wang T, Liu CX, Yang X, Lei G, Wei J, Ma X, Liu B, Hobeika A, Morse M, Kanu E, Agritelley E, Keler T, He LZ, Lyerly HK, Hartman ZC. Science Immunology (in revision)
AKT and EZH2 inhibitors kill TNBCs by hijacking mechanisms of involution
Schade, A.E., Perurena, N., Yang, Y. et al. Nature (2024).