Joel Sunshine

My research is centered around developing new techniques to better understand immunologic responses to skin cancers and the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and engineering new therapeutics to activate the anti-tumor immune response. My lab is focused developing new approaches to activate the anti-tumor immune response to skin cancer using micro- and nanoparticle formulations, with a specific focus on developing novel approaches using non-viral nucleic acid delivery systems. We have developed effective nanoparticle systems which can deliver plasmids or mRNA or siRNA to tumors and drive signal 2 and signal 3 expression and/or modulate additional downstream or upstream machinery locally, and are exploring the utility of that platform to treat aggressive skin cancers, locally or in combination with checkpoint immunotherapy. Additionally, to better understand the immune response to skin cancer in human tumors, we are using multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF), digital pathology, microdissection, and artificial intelligence to develop improved biomarkers of treatment response and resistance. We are working on better understanding the immunopathologic changes in the TIME in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibition, rigorously testing our mIF biomarkers, and extending our work on superficial spreading melanoma to rare melanoma subtypes including acral melanoma.