The laboratory of Dr. David Oh, which is located at the UCSF Parnassus Heights campus, seeks an exceptional candidate at the Specialist level who will independently plan, develop, and execute research projects and train additional laboratory personnel.

Research in the Oh Laboratory uses translational approaches to probe how the adaptive immune response interacts with cancer to lead to both beneficial and harmful outcomes after cancer immunotherapy, specifically tumor control and autoimmune side effects (immune-related adverse events). To address these questions, we use multifaceted approaches to deeply interrogate samples from immunotherapy-treated patients, including next-generation sequencing (RNA sequencing, T cell receptor sequencing, single-cell RNA sequencing), cytometry (flow and mass cytometry), immune effector assays, and high-dimensional tissue imaging. We also make use of reductionist mouse models to test mechanistic questions arising from patient samples. The goal of this work is to discover relevant adaptive immune responses in patients, validate and test these using in vivo/ex vivo experimentation, and translate this into novel therapeutic targets or approaches for cancer patients.

Recently, we have identified a novel population of cytotoxic CD4+ T cells which are found in tumors from bladder cancer patients, express cytolytic markers, and are capable of direct autologous killing of tumor. We are engaged in further exploration of the phenotype and function of these effector cells, and therapeutic approaches that modulate these effectors. We are also investigating the composition and function of clonally expanded T cell populations in autoimmune colitis that occurs after checkpoint inhibition, and how these cells contribute to colitis pathogenesis. Our work is highly collaborative in nature and involves frequent interactions with immunologists, clinicians, and computational biologists within the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.