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Susan Kaech

Susan Kaech

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Susan Kaech is the NOMIS Foundation Chair and director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, US). She co-led the Marmosets as a Model System of Aging and Neurodegeneration project.

Born in the US, Kaech received a BS from the University of Washington (Seattle, US) in 1993 and a PhD from Stanford University (Stanford, US) in 1999. She has served as the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University (New Haven, US). She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. award and the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation award. She has been named an investigator of the American Asthma Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute.

Kaech is investigating how immune cells—called T cells—remember infectious agents our bodies have previously encountered in order to mount a more rapid response the next time we’re exposed to them. She and her team discovered numerous genetic pathways and signals that operate in T cells to promote the development of long-term immunity. More recently, her lab is studying how immune cell activities can be influenced by metabolic changes, particularly within cancer. This work is opening up an entirely new way of thinking about how immunosuppression can occur in tumors.

Susan Kaech | Awards Film

Susan Kaech | Insights Film

Susan Kaech's News

NOMIS researcher Susan Kaech has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professor Susan Kaech, director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis, […]

Susan Kaech, NOMIS Foundation Chair and director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Salk Institute, has been named a 2020 Fellow of the American Association […]

Salk scientists tackle COVID-19 pandemic with innovative research projects on immunity, vaccine development, viral imaging and more LA JOLLA—As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the globe, the Salk Institute joins […]

Susan Kaech's Insights

Abstract: CD8+ T cells are end effectors of cancer immunity. Most forms of effective cancer immunotherapy involve CD8+ T cell effector function. Here, we review the current understanding of T cell function in cancer, focusing on key CD8+ T cell subtypes and states. We discuss factors that influence CD8+ T cell
Abstract: The limited efficacy of immunotherapies against glioblastoma underscores the urgency of better understanding immunity in the central nervous system. We found that treatment with αCTLA-4, but not αPD-1, prolonged survival in a mouse model of mesenchymal-like glioblastoma. This effect was lost upon the depletion of CD4+ T cells but not
Abstract: CD8+ T cells provide host protection against pathogens by differentiating into distinct effector and memory cell subsets, but how chromatin is site-specifically remodeled during their differentiation is unclear. Due to its critical role in regulating chromatin and enhancer accessibility through its nucleosome remodeling activities, we investigated the role of the