Debolina Ganguly, PhD Parker Scholar Biography Debolina Ganguly, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow and PICI scholar at the PICI Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in the laboratory of Judith Agudo, PhD. She received her PhD at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the laboratory of Rolf Brekken, PhD. In her doctoral thesis work, Ganguly found that Pleiotrophin, a highly understudied neurotropic protein, drives immune suppression in breast cancer metastasis in the lung by recruiting neutrophils and causing T cell dysfunction. She further demonstrated that targeting Pleiotrophin sensitized previously unresponsive metastases to immunotherapy. As a Parker Scholar in the Agudo lab, Ganguly will investigate how cancer cells disseminate throughout the body without being recognized by the systemic anti-tumor immune response. Using genetic engineering tools and novel mouse models, Ganguly aims to uncover the mechanistic underpinnings that allow breast cancer cells that colonize in the liver to induce systemic tolerance to tumor antigens. Findings from this research have the potential to not only change how we treat liver metastatic cancer patients in the future but will also further our understanding of the basics of how our immune system keeps systemic responses in check. Education & Training 2023: Present - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, post-doctoral research fellow, cancer immunology 2017: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), Dallas, TX, PhD, Cancer Biology 2012: St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India, MSc, Biotechnology Awards & Honors 2022: Best Oral Presentation, UTSW, Cancer Biology Program Retreat 2022: Best Oral Presentation, UTSW, Surgery Research Forum 2020: GSO Fall Travel Award, UTSW, Graduate Student Organization 2016: Summer Student Program Fellowship, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (India)