Judy Bhatt

Judy Bhatt has advanced understanding of caspase-1 activation as a mechanism to enhance anti-tumor immunity, demonstrating that therapeutic induction of caspase-1 activity in tumor cells triggers pyroptotic release of IL-18 and IL-1beta that activates NK cells and dendritic cells. Her research showed that caspase-1 expression is frequently lost in cancer through epigenetic silencing, representing an immune evasion mechanism. She developed nanoparticle-based caspase-1 activators capable of inducing selective tumor pyroptosis in preclinical models. Her work on pyroptosis biomarkers has identified gasdermin D cleavage products as predictors of immunotherapy response.