Susan Bhatt

Susan Bhatt has investigated epigenetic regulation of T cell exhaustion as a determinant of IO response and resistance, examining how the transcriptional and epigenetic state of tumor-infiltrating T cells influences their capacity to be reinvigorated by checkpoint blockade. Her research characterized how TOX, TOX2, and NR4A transcription factors establish exhausted T cell identity through epigenetic remodeling, creating a stable exhaustion program that limits T cell reinvigoration by anti-PD-1 therapy. She has developed T cell exhaustion molecular signatures as biomarkers of IO response, finding that tumors with highly exhausted versus progenitor-exhausted TIL compositions show differential responses to checkpoint blockade. Her translational work on epigenetic therapies including HDAC inhibitors and BET bromodomain inhibitors as strategies to reverse T cell exhaustion and enhance checkpoint inhibitor efficacy has contributed to combination IO strategies targeting epigenetic barriers to anti-tumor immunity.