Russell Bhatt

Russell Bhatt focuses on translating STING pathway biology into effective cancer immunotherapies. His laboratory has developed novel STING agonist formulations with improved pharmacokinetics and tumor delivery profiles to overcome the poor systemic stability of early cyclic dinucleotide compounds. He has characterized the immunological cascade triggered by intratumoral STING activation including NK cell recruitment, dendritic cell maturation, and effector T cell priming. His work on combining STING agonists with anti-PD-1 therapy has demonstrated synergistic abscopal effects in preclinical tumor models and informed ongoing clinical combination trials.