Titles and Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine Section of Medical Oncology
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Research area
Developing models to identify patients at risk of immune-related adverse events and guide safer, more effective treatment strategies.
Impact
Breast cancer treatments are often accompanied by side effects that can range from minor to severe. In some cases, chemotherapy or immunotherapy treatments can cause autoimmune and other immune-related adverse events (irAEs) but the causes are poorly understood. Hypothyroidism is an irAE that can cause an array of symptoms that range in severity and can affect quality of life. There is a critical unmet need for models of drug-induced hypothyroidism that can be used clinically to determine who may be at risk of developing hypothyroidism as a side effect of breast cancer treatment.
What’s Next
Dr. Blenman aims to create models of the thyroid gland using human cells to study cell damage caused by known hypothyroidism-inducing drugs. She then will test whether drugs and/or autoantibodies in patients’ blood can damage the thyroid, and test drugs that can potentially protect against drug-induced hypothyroidism. Ultimately, these models could be used to monitor patients during treatment and inform shifting to less toxic therapy options if needed.
Biography
Kim RM Blenman, PhD, MS is an immunologist and clinical chemist who uses and develops novel software tools to understand the mechanisms responsible for disparities in disease pathogenesis and therapeutic response. She earned a doctorate in immunology, a master’s in clinical chemistry, and a bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Florida. Dr. Blenman also has a certificate in Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco. She had the privilege of learning and working on drug discovery and clinical development at Procter & Gamble’s Pharmaceutical division as a senior scientist and as a global research director for autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California. Dr. Blenman is currently an Assistant Professor in the Yale School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Section of Medical Oncology and the Yale Cancer Center as well as an Assistant Professor in the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science
