Edward Pearce

Edward Pearce established that dendritic cell activation and antigen presentation capacity depends on a metabolic switch to glycolysis mediated by mTOR-HIF1alpha signaling, and that tumor-derived factors disrupt this metabolic program to impair anti-tumor immune priming. His work on metabolic checkpoints in immunity demonstrated that each step of the anti-cancer immune cycle has distinct metabolic requirements that tumors exploit to create immune evasion at multiple levels. He develops combination metabolic interventions that simultaneously support effector T cell glycolysis and dendritic cell activation while disrupting tumor metabolic immunosuppression.