Kim Blenman, PhD
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
Titles and Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine Section of Medical Oncology
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut
American Association for Cancer Research
Research area
Identifying immune biomarkers of treatment adverse events.
Impact
B cells, a type of white blood cell, are present in the tumor immune microenvironment but are generally ignored. There is limited knowledge about how B cells contribute to adverse events (AEs) caused by chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Dr. Blenman’s goal is to identify B cell biomarkers and autoantibodies that are associated with therapy-induced AEs in specimens from breast cancer patients.
What’s Next
Dr. Blenman hypothesizes that B cells play important regulatory functions and mediate some therapy-induced autoimmune and other immune-mediated side effects across treatment regimens. Dr. Blenman will use tumor and blood samples collected from patients within the Yale New Haven Health catchment area to address this question. Studying the contribution of B cells and autoantibodies to immune-related toxicity could uncover biomarkers that can be used to forecast and monitor AEs before, during, and after therapy to help guide treatments and evaluate survivorship.
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.
BCRF Investigator Since
2022
Donor Recognition
The von Mandl Family Foundation Award
