Postdoctoral Associate
University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Dr. Anderko is a Postdoctoral Associate under Dr. Amer Zureikat in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Unsatisfactory outcomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) highlight the need to identify patients who would benefit from specific treatment modalities. Thus, her overarching goal is to improve outcomes in patients with PDAC by utilizing patient-derived organoids (PDOs) to predict the most effective individualized combination therapies, including standard-of-care multidrug chemotherapy regimens and immunotherapy. Dr. Anderko's work focuses on establishing autologous αβ and γδ-enriched tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and PDO cultures from surgically resected PDAC tissue. To date, her findings provide evidence of the utility of PDOs for selecting patients who would potentially benefit from advanced combination therapeutic modalities, including adoptive cell therapy with γδ-enriched TIL. Dr. Anderko was the recipient of a T32 Training Grant and the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Careers in Immunology Fellowship, and her research continues to be recognized in the form of first-author manuscripts and invitations to present at national and international conferences.
Saturday, March 23, 2024
8:52am – 9:02am ET