Hemn Mohammadpour

Biography:

I joined the faculty of Cell Stress Biology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in April 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Oncology. I earned my doctorate of veterinary medicine at University of Tabriz, Iran and a PhD in medical immunology at Tarbiat Modares University, Iran. During my graduate studies, I was working on how different inflammatory cytokines regulate the pro-tumor versus anti-tumor function of mesenchymal stem cells (Mohammadpour et al., International Immunopharmacology, 2015). I further demonstrated that TNF-a promotes anti-tumor function of mesenchymal stem cells, improves the efficacy of irradiation (Mohammadpour et al. Scientific Reports, 2016) and photodynamic therapy (Mohammadpour et al., Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, 2015) in breast cancer.

I conducted my postdoctoral training in Dr. Elizabeth Repasky’s laboratory at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY. Here, my focus was on the role of chronic stress on myeloid cells especially myeloid derived suppressor cell function in tumor microenvironment. I identified that Beta 2 adrenergic receptor signaling plays a key role in regulating accumulation and immunosuppressive function (Mohammadpour et al., Journal of Clinical Investigations, 2019) and metabolism of MDSCs (Mohammadpour et al., Cell Reports, 2021). I also continued my research on the how beta 2 adrenergic receptor signaling regulates the function of donor T cells after allogenic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) decreasing the severity of graft versus host disease (GvHD) without impairing graft versus tumor (GvT) (Mohammadpour et al., Journal of Immunology, 2018; Mohammadpour et al., JCI insight 2020).

My laboratory has specific research interest in discovering regulatory pathways governing the differentiation and immunosuppressive function of MDSCs, identifying novel therapeutic strategies to target MDSCs with a goal to improve immunotherapy based therapeutic strategies in patients with cancer. I am also very interested in biology of GvHD and identifying new approaches to minimize the severity and mortality of GvHD. My research interests include Myeloid cell differentiation, function and metabolism, the impact of inflammatory stress on the tumor microenvironment, GvHD, GvT and the tumor microenvironment in both hematological malignancies and solid tumor. My laboratory is funded by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Additionally, I have received several awards and honors that include Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows F32 Award and K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award.