Julien Rodon

Julien Rodon, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he directs a precision oncology research program focused on molecular mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance. His laboratory and translational research team have made key contributions to characterizing JAK1 and JAK2 loss-of-function mutations as resistance mechanisms to PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. His group demonstrated that inactivating mutations in JAK1 or JAK2 abrogate IFN-gamma-mediated STAT1 phosphorylation and transcriptional activation of PD-L1, MHC-I, and immunoproteasome components in tumor cells, thus uncoupling the adaptive immune response. This JAK-STAT resistance phenotype is associated with immune cold tumors and predicts non-response across melanoma, lung, and colorectal cancers. Dr. Rodon also contributed to understanding how genomic instability in tumor cells leads to selection of JAK mutations under immunological pressure, establishing JAK alterations as biomarkers for resistance monitoring and alternative therapeutic targeting strategies.