Kelly Kersten PhD

“Cancer is one the main causes of death in the US. Our research is focused on understanding how we can harness the power of our immune system to attack and kill cancer cells and cure patients. I chose to join Sanford Burnham Prebys because of their collaborative research culture and state-of-the- art core facilities. I believe that teamwork is the foundation of scientific breakthroughs, and the Institute provides a perfect supportive and friendly environment to achieve this.”

Originally from the Netherlands, Kelly received her BS and MS from Utrecht University, and performed her PhD studies at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam working with Prof. Karin de Visser studying the role of the immune system in the metastatic spread of breast cancer. For her postdoctoral training, Kelly joined the lab of Prof. Max Krummel at the University of California San Francisco to study how tumor-associated myeloid cells affect anti-tumor T cell responses. Kelly is currently setting up her independent research team at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Education

2016-2023: Postdoctoral Training, University of California San Francisco (Mentor: Prof. Max Krummel, focus on immune evasive cancer)
2017: PhD, Netherlands Cancer Institute Amsterdam/ Leiden University (Mentor: Prof. Karin de Visser, focus on role immune system in breast cancer metastasis, 2011-2016)
2011: MS, Biomedical Sciences, Utrecht University, Netherlands
2008: BS, Biology, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Honors and Recognition

2022: Selected Attendee for SITC Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network (WIN) Leadership Institute
2022: Selected Attendee for Arthur and Sandra Irving Cancer Immunology Symposium
2022: Ray Owen Poster Award for Outstanding Poster Presentation at 60th Midwinter Conference for Immunologists at Asilomar (sponsored by AAI)
2020-2022: Parker Scholar Award awarded by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI)
2018: Honorable Mention of poster presentation at UCSF/UCB/UCM Immunology Retreat
2018: Poster presentation ‘Excellence in Research Award’ awarded by the National Philanthropic Trust
2017-2019: NWO Rubicon postdoctoral fellowship awarded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
2015: Best presentation award at the annual Tumor Cell Biology meeting of the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF)
2014: Travel scholarship awarded by the Dutch Foundation for Pharmacological Sciences (NSFW)
2010: Master scholarship awarded by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF)

Memberships

2022-present: Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
2020-present: Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI)
2012-present: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)  

Related Disease
Breast Cancer, Cancer Biology, Immune Disorders, Inflammation, Innate Immunity, Metastasis, Skin Cancer and Melanoma, Tumor Microenvironment, Tumorigenesis

Phenomena or Processes
Adaptive Immunity, Innate Immunity

Research Models
Mouse, Primary Cells

Techniques and Technologies
Cellular and Molecular Imaging

The Kersten lab studies the interactions between the immune system and cancer.

We are fascinated by the crosstalk between the immune system and cancer. Our goal is to understand how cancer cells hijack the normal physiology and function of immune cells to support tumor growth and evade destruction by the immune system.

Kelly Kersten’s Research Report

Cancer immunotherapy, harnessing a patient’s immune system to fight cancer, has revolutionized the way we treat cancer. However, a large proportion of patients do not respond to this type of therapy, and we do not fully understand why. In the Kersten lab, we study how different immune cells affect anti-tumor immunity with the ultimate goal to improve therapies to fight cancer. Research in our lab is focused on understanding how interactions between different immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, specifically macrophages and T cells, affect anti-tumor immunity and responsiveness to immunotherapy. Why do T cells become dysfunctional and exhausted? How do exhausted T cells modulate the composition of immune cells in tumors? And how do macrophages shut down anti-tumor T cells? Our research aims to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate these reciprocal signals to design novel anti-cancer therapies. How immune cells function is highly context-dependent. Upon infiltration in the tumor microenvironment, immune cells face extremely harsh conditions characterized by nutrient deprivation, hypoxia and metabolic challenges resulting in their failure to function properly. We study how different environmental factors impact immune cell phenotype and function, with the goal to optimize their cancer-killing properties.