Amy Moran, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
  • Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine
  • Cancer Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine

Biography

I have a long-standing interest in understanding how the T cell microenvironment shapes the immunological response upon T cell activation. I have a broad background in basic immunology with specific training and expertise T cell receptor signal strength and fate decisions, tumor models, and cancer immunotherapy. My current research seeks to understand the mechanism of action of single agent and combination therapies in models of prostate cancer. These studies parlay from work during my postdoctoral training that uncovered novel mechanisms of synergy between OX40 agonists and PD-L1 blockade in models of sarcoma and adenocarcinomas published in The Journal of Immunology and under review in Cancer Cell. Studies in my independent laboratory focus on understanding how hormone ablation therapies reverse immunesenescence in tumor bearing hosts with a particular interest in prostate cancer. These studies explore the metabolic health and plasticity of tumor-antigen specific T cells in aged hosts and the impact of sex steroid ablation and checkpoint blockade on increasing the bioenergetics potential of these cells. In addition, we explore the impact of restoring thymic function together with PD-1 inhibition in tumor-bearing hosts and the impact this has on the immune repertoire, function, and regulatory T cell differentiation.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 2001, Gonzaga University
    • Ph.D., 2011, University of Minnesota

Memberships and associations:

  • 2013-Present Member, Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer
  • 2011-Present Member, American Association of Immunologists

Publications

Selected publications

  • “Antigen-Independent Differentiation and Maintenance of Effector-like Resident Memory T cells in Tissues.” Journal of Immunology. May 15; 188(10): 4866-75. PMID: 22504644
  • “The TNFRs OX40, 4-1BB, and CD40 as targets for cancer immunotherapy.” Current Opinion in Immunology. Apr 25(2):230-7. PMID:23414607
  • “Immunotherapy expands and maintains the function of high affinity tumor infiltrating CD8 T cells in situ.” (2016). The Journal of Immunology. September 15; 197(6):2509-21.
  • “Enhanced bioenergetic potential supports the expansion and effector differentiation of T cells after aOX40 plus aPDL1 combination therapy.” Under review; Cancer Cell.

Publications

  • PD-1 Limits IL-2 Production and Thymic Regulatory T Cell Development

    ImmunoHorizons
    1. Breanna Caruso
    2. Benjamin R. Weeder
    3. Reid F. Thompson
    4. Amy E. Moran

  • Restored Thymic Output after Androgen Blockade Participates in Antitumor Immunity

    Journal of Immunology
    1. Fanny Polesso
    2. Breanna Caruso
    3. Scott A. Hammond
    4. Amy E. Moran

  • Androgen receptor activity in T cells limits checkpoint blockade efficacy

    Nature
    1. Xiangnan Guan
    2. Fanny Polesso
    3. Chaojie Wang
    4. Archana Sehrawat
    5. Reed M. Hawkins
    6. Susan E. Murray
    7. George V. Thomas
    8. Breanna Caruso
    9. Reid F. Thompson
    10. Mary A. Wood
    11. Christina Hipfinger
    12. Scott A. Hammond
    13. Julie N. Graff
    14. Zheng Xia
    15. Amy E. Moran

  • Androgen receptor blockade promotes response to BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy

    Nature
    1. Christopher P. Vellano
    2. Michael G. White
    3. Miles C. Andrews
    4. Manoj Chelvanambi
    5. Russell G. Witt
    6. Joseph R. Daniele
    7. Mark Titus
    8. Jennifer L. McQuade
    9. Fabio Conforti
    10. Elizabeth M. Burton
    11. Matthew J. Lastrapes
    12. Gabriel Ologun
    13. Alexandria P. Cogdill
    14. Golnaz Morad
    15. Peter Prieto
    16. Alexander J. Lazar
    17. Yanshuo Chu
    18. Guangchun Han
    19. M. A.Wadud Khan
    20. Beth Helmink
    21. Michael A. Davies
    22. Rodabe N. Amaria
    23. Jeffrey J. Kovacs
    24. Scott E. Woodman
    25. Sapna Patel
    26. Patrick Hwu
    27. Michael Peoples
    28. Jeffrey E. Lee
    29. Zachary A. Cooper
    30. Haifeng Zhu
    31. Guang Gao
    32. Hiya Banerjee
    33. Mike Lau
    34. Jeffrey E. Gershenwald
    35. Anthony Lucci
    36. Emily Z. Keung
    37. Merrick I. Ross
    38. Laura Pala
    39. Eleonora Pagan
    40. Rossana Lazcano Segura
    41. Qian Liu
    42. Mikayla S. Borthwick
    43. Eric Lau
    44. Melinda S. Yates
    45. Shannon N. Westin
    46. Khalida Wani
    47. Michael T. Tetzlaff
    48. Lauren E. Haydu
    49. Mikhila Mahendra
    50. Xiao Yan Ma
    51. Christopher Logothetis
    52. Zachary Kulstad
    53. Sarah Johnson
    54. Courtney W. Hudgens
    55. Ningping Feng
    56. Lorenzo Federico
    57. Georgina V. Long
    58. P. Andrew Futreal
    59. Swathi Arur
    60. Hussein A. Tawbi
    61. Amy E. Moran
    62. Linghua Wang
    63. Timothy P. Heffernan
    64. Joseph R. Marszalek
    65. Jennifer A. Wargo

  • Composition of gastrointestinal microbiota in association with treatment response in individuals with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer progressing on enzalutamide and initiating treatment with anti-PD-1 (pembrolizumab)

    Neoplasia (United States)
    1. Lauren B. Peiffer
    2. James R. White
    3. Carli B. Jones
    4. Rachel E. Slottke
    5. Sarah E. Ernst
    6. Amy E. Moran
    7. Julie N. Graff
    8. Karen S. Sfanos

  • Identifying phenotype-associated subpopulations by integrating bulk and single-cell sequencing data

    Nature biotechnology
    1. Duanchen Sun
    2. Xiangnan Guan
    3. Amy E. Moran
    4. Ling Yun Wu
    5. David Z. Qian
    6. Pepper Schedin
    7. Mu Shui Dai
    8. Alexey V. Danilov
    9. Joshi J. Alumkal
    10. Andrew C. Adey
    11. Paul T. Spellman
    12. Zheng Xia

  • PD-1-specific “Blocking” antibodies that deplete PD-1+ T cells present an inconvenient variable in preclinical immunotherapy experiments

    European Journal of Immunology
    1. Fanny Polesso
    2. Michael W. Munks
    3. Katherine H. Rott
    4. Savannah Smart
    5. Ann B. Hill
    6. Amy E. Moran

  • A phase II single-arm study of pembrolizumab with enzalutamide in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer progressing on enzalutamide alone

    Journal for immunotherapy of cancer
    1. Julie N. Graff
    2. Tomasz M. Beer
    3. Joshi J. Alumkal
    4. Rachel E. Slottke
    5. William L. Redmond
    6. George V. Thomas
    7. Reid F. Thompson
    8. Mary A. Wood
    9. Yoshinobu Koguchi
    10. Yiyi Chen
    11. Emile Latour
    12. Raymond C. Bergan
    13. Charles G. Drake
    14. Amy E. Moran

  • Phase II Study of Ipilimumab in Men With Metastatic Prostate Cancer With an Incomplete Response to Androgen Deprivation Therapy

    Frontiers in Oncology
    1. Julie N. Graff
    2. Mark N. Stein
    3. Rishi Surana
    4. Luai Al Rabadi
    5. Eric Liu
    6. Lawrence Fong
    7. Shawna Bailey
    8. Emile Latour
    9. Timothy A. Newby
    10. Amy E. Moran
    11. Tomasz M. Beer

  • The relationship between checkpoint inhibitors and the gut microbiome and its application in prostate cancer

    Oncology (United States)
    1. Ashray Maniar
    2. Amy E. Moran
    3. Julie N. Graff

  • Late-stage tumor regression after PD-L1 blockade plus a concurrent OX40 agonist

    Cancer Immunology Research
    1. Fanny Polesso
    2. Andrew D. Weinberg
    3. Amy E. Moran

  • OX40 agonist tumor immunotherapy does not impact regulatory T cell suppressive function

    Journal of Immunology
    1. Fanny Polesso
    2. Minhaz Sarker
    3. Andrew D. Weinberg
    4. Susan E. Murray
    5. Amy E. Moran

  • Nod2 deficiency augments Th17 responses and exacerbates autoimmune arthritis

    Journal of Immunology
    1. Ruth J. Napier
    2. Ellen J. Lee
    3. Emily E. Vance
    4. Paige E. Snow
    5. Kimberly A. Samson
    6. Clare E. Dawson
    7. Amy E. Moran
    8. Peter Stenzel
    9. Michael P. Davey
    10. Shimon Sakaguchi
    11. Holly L. Rosenzweig

  • Immunotherapy expands and maintains the function of high-affinity tumor-infiltrating CD8 T cells in situ

    Journal of Immunology
    1. Amy E. Moran
    2. Fanny Polesso
    3. Andrew D. Weinberg

  • B-Raf is required for positive selection and survival of DP cells, but not for negative selection of SP cells

    International Immunology
    1. Tara J. Dillon
    2. Maho Takahashi
    3. Yanping Li
    4. Srilatha Tavisala
    5. Susan E. Murray
    6. Amy E. Moran
    7. David C. Parker
    8. Philip J.S. Stork

  • Antigen-independent differentiation and maintenance of effector-like resident memory T Cells in tissues

    Journal of Immunology
    1. Kerry A. Casey
    2. Kathryn A. Fraser
    3. Jason M. Schenkel
    4. Amy Moran
    5. Michael C. Abt
    6. Lalit K. Beura
    7. Philip J. Lucas
    8. David Artis
    9. E. John Wherry
    10. Kristin Hogquist
    11. Vaiva Vezys
    12. David Masopust

  • T cell receptor signal strength in Treg and iNKT cell development demonstrated by a novel fluorescent reporter mouse

    Journal of Experimental Medicine
    1. Amy E. Moran
    2. Keli L. Holzapfel
    3. Yan Xing
    4. Nicole R. Cunningham
    5. Jonathan S. Maltzman
    6. Jennifer Punt
    7. Kristin A. Hogquist

  • Treg cells meet their limit

    Nature Immunology
    1. Kristin A. Hogquist
    2. Amy E. Moran

  • A pilot surrogate endpoint biomarker study of celecoxib in oral premalignant lesions

    Cancer Prevention Research
    1. Lori J. Wirth
    2. Jeffrey F. Krane
    3. Yi Li
    4. Megan Othus
    5. Amy E. Moran
    6. David M. Dorfman
    7. Charles M. Norris
    8. Laura Goguen
    9. Marshall R. Posner
    10. Robert I. Haddad
    11. Monica M. Bertagnolli

  • Changes in antitumor response in C57BL/6J-Min/+ mice during long-term administration of a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor

    Cancer Research
    1. Adelaide M. Carothers
    2. Amy E. Moran
    3. Nancy L. Cho
    4. Mark Redston
    5. Monica M. Bertagnolli

  • Deficient E-cadherin adhesion in C57BL/6J-Min/+ mice is associated with increased tyrosine kinase activity and RhoA-dependent actomyosin contractility

    Experimental Cell Research
    1. Adelaide M. Carothers
    2. Sara H. Javid
    3. Amy E. Moran
    4. Daniel H. Hunt
    5. Mark Redston
    6. Monica M. Bertagnolli

  • Carnosol inhibits β-catenin tyrosine phosphorylation and prevents adenoma formation in the C57BL/6J/Min/+ (Min/+) mouse

    Cancer Research
    1. Amy E. Moran
    2. Adelaide M. Carothers
    3. Michael J. Weyant
    4. Mark Redston
    5. Monica M. Bertagnolli

  • Modulation of tumor formation and intestinal cell migration by estrogens in the ApcMin/+ mouse model of colorectal cancer

    Carcinogenesis
    1. Sara H. Javid
    2. Amy E. Moran
    3. Adelaide M. Carothers
    4. Mark Redston
    5. Monica M. Bertagnolli

  • Apc deficiency is associated with increased Egfr activity in the intestinal enterocytes and adenomas of C57BL/6J-Min/+ mice

    Journal of Biological Chemistry
    1. Amy E. Moran
    2. Daniel H. Hunt
    3. Sara H. Javid
    4. Mark Redston
    5. Adelaide M. Carothers
    6. Monica M. Bertagnolli