Ingunn Stromnes

Dr. Ingunn Stromnes obtained a PhD in Immunology from the University of Washington in 2007. She did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she spearheaded a novel T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T-cell therapy that is now in phase 1 clinical trials for pancreatic cancer patient treatment. In 2017, she became a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Her goal is to improve the treatment of patients with intractable malignancies by harnessing the immune system, and she has a particular focus on the highly lethal pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. She has extensive expertise on T lymphocytes, immunotherapies, the tumor microenvironment, and TCR-engineered T-cell therapies for targeting cancer. In particular, her lab has developed cutting-edge mouse cancer models to interrogate the fate of endogenous and engineered T cells during immunotherapy. Through her studies, she is uncovering how to overcome the hurdle of the suppressive tumor microenvironment to promote and sustain anticancer T cells.