Stefani Spranger

Stefani Spranger investigates how disseminated cancer cells overcome organ-specific immune barriers during metastatic colonization, demonstrating that the immune landscape at metastatic sites differs fundamentally from primary tumors and that successful colonization requires distinct immune evasion strategies for each organ. Her work revealed that brain metastases exhibit unique immune exclusion mechanisms mediated by the blood-brain barrier and brain-resident macrophages. She has shown that tissue-specific innate immune cells determine whether disseminated tumor cells are eliminated or permitted to colonize. Her research is informing organ-specific immunotherapy approaches for metastatic disease.