Sergei I. Grivennikov, Ph.D.

Research

Our lab examines how inflammation is linked to the development of a cancerous tumor. Over 150 years ago, physicians began to note parallels between cancer and chronic inflammation, comparing tumors to wounds that never heal. While scientists today recognize that only about 20 percent of tumors develop when preceded by chronic inflammation, wound-healing-like reactions are known to play an important part in tumor growth and malignancy. In a process called tumor-elicited inflammation, a developing tumor attracts immune cells that precipitate an inflammatory reaction inside the tumor, but the mechanism of this phenomenon is largely unknown. With the Pew award, I will focus on cytokines, the small cell-signaling protein molecules that are secreted by inflammatory cells. We will explore the role that cytokines play in linking inflammation with cancer using a genetically altered mouse that is defective in various immune components and is engineered to develop colorectal cancer. This work will increase our understanding of the role of host immunity in the onset of cancer, and potentially identify ways to harness our immune systems against the disease.