Our Team
Tyler Curiel MD, MPH
tyler.j.curiel@dartmouth.edu
Our initial work in human immunology focused on anti-pathogen immunity that helped to develop important research techniques and collaborations that supported current endeavors.
Our early work at Tulane focused on dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME), helping launch detailed studies by many investigators on tumor microenvironmental cells.
Studies extended to include tumor microenvironmental regulatory T cells (Tregs) which spawned many additional studies of their microenvironmental effects in cancer, among our most important contributions to date. The current focus is understanding immune dysregulation in cancer as a means to understand cancer immunopathogenesis and develop novel cancer immunotherapies.
Immunopathogenic pathway studies now also include immune co-signaling. We also study age effects on immunity and immunotherapy, and immunopathogenesis of autoimmune disease. Discoveries are put into clinical trials for testing. The group has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1987.
Carlos Ontiveros MD/PhD Candidate
carlos.o.ontiveros.gr@dartmouth.edu
I am a graduate student in the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD Program) studying tumor immunology under the mentorship of Tyler Curiel, MD, MPH. My research focuses on studying the role of tumor cell-of-origin PDL1 in tumorigenesis and early tumor progression in multiple cancers, including melanoma and bladder cancer.
I went to the University of Texas at El Paso for undergrad and did a research internship at Scripps in La Jolla, CA. I like rocks, cars, fishing, and the outdoors. My hobbies/interests include working on cars, fishing, hiking, biking, kayaking, mineral collecting, wine collecting.
Clare Murray MD/PhD Candidate
clare.e.murray.gr@dartmouth.edu
I am a graduate student in the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD Program) studying cancer immunology under the mentorship of Tyler Curiel, MD, MPH. My project focuses on the novel biology of tumor-intrinsic PDL1 signals that promote therapy resistance and developing pharmacologic tumor PDL1 depleting drugs (PDDs) as a translational method to inhibit these signals and sensitize tumors to therapies. My work is currently being integrated into human clinical trials.
Yiji Liao PhD
yiji.liao@hitchcock.org
I am a staff scientist and faculty instructor in Tyler Curiel’s lab at Dartmouth College. I enjoy hiking, running, and the outdoors.
Christopher Tanner PhD Student
christopher.d.tanner.gr@dartmouth.edu
I am a graduate student in the Microbiology & Immunology discipline of the MCB graduate program at Dartmouth College pursuing my dissertation work with Dr. Tyler Curiel. I study the immune checkpoint molecule PDL2 in the tumor microenvironment and how we can use PDL2 specific immunotherapy to elicit novel treatment vulnerabilities in aged and young hosts.
Hyuk (Jim) Jee PhD Student
hyuk.jee.gr@dartmouth.edu
I am a graduate student in the Microbiology & Immunology discipline of the MCB graduate program at Dartmouth College pursuing my dissertation work with Dr. Tyler Curiel. I study tumor cell of origin PDL1 contributions to tumorigenesis and how cell-to-cell communication affects tumor virulence. I use a variety of wet lab and computational techniques/approaches to study these effects.
Bernice Leung PhD Student
bernice.leung.gr@dartmouth.edu
I am a graduate student in the Microbiology & Immunology discipline of the MCB graduate program at Dartmouth College pursuing my dissertation work with Dr. Tyler Curiel. I am interested in the pharmacological depletion of PD-L1 and how it can sensitize tumors to chemotherapies. I also volunteer as an annotator for AAAS’s Science in the Classroom. Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, listening to true crime podcasts, experimenting in the kitchen and watching Korean dramas.