You are here
Taha Merghoub, PhD
Associate Attending Biologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York
Current Research
Goal: To improve response to immunotherapy in breast cancer patients.
Impact: Drs. Merghoub and Wolchok are pursuing strategies to harness the power of the immune system to treat breast cancer, including combination treatment approaches and vaccine development. Their work could advance the use of immune-based treatments in breast cancer patients.
What’s next: Having identified two classes of drugs that work by preventing immune surveillance of breast tumors, the team will now conduct laboratory and clinical studies to further test them alone and in combination to continue improving immune therapies.
Immunotherapy has been less effective in treating breast cancer patients compared to those with other types of cancer, such as melanoma and lung cancer. Drs. Merghoub and Wolchok are conducting several studies aimed at enhancing response to immunotherapy in patients with breast cancer and improve outcomes. Having shown promise in laboratory studies, some of these methods are now being tested in patients.
Full Research Summary
Research Area: Developing immunotherapy approaches in breast cancer.
- Combining immune therapy with radiation therapy
- Targeted and inactivated immune suppressive cells called Tregs and myeloid suppressive cells
- Modulated tumor glucose consumption to improve immune therapies
Biography
Dr. Merghoub received his BA degree from University of Algiers, Algeria, and MS and PhD degrees with highest distinction from University of Paris, France. His thesis work focused on the study of genetic polymorphism in fetal hemoglobin gene in patients with sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. His findings provided insight to the correlation of genotypes and phenotypes in sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. After graduation, he pursued his postdoctoral research with Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi at MSKCC. He characterized the transcriptional properties of the Pokemon gene and its role during development. He also played an active role in the generation of laboratory models for acute promyelocytic leukemia, and furthered his knowledge and experience in genetics. Dr. Merghoub is a Senior Research Scientist in Dr. Wolchok’s lab and an associate lab member in the melanoma and immunotherapeutic service. His research projects investigate the pathogenesis and treatment of melanoma, and in part are directed at developing tools to study melanoma. These projects are heavily collaborative in nature, within the Wolchok lab and across different disciplines at MSKCC. Dr. Merghoub has been co-directing the scientific focus of the Wolchok lab.
