Megan Ruhland, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
  • Assistant Professor of Dermatology, School of Medicine

Biography

Megan Ruhland, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, with a secondary appointment in Dermatology, at OHSU School of Medicine. Her work studies the immune system's response to cancer with the goal of re-educating immune cells to fight disease. Specifically, Dr. Ruhland focuses on the ability of antigen-presenting immune cells to stimulate productive anti-tumor T cell responses. Beyond cancer, the Ruhland lab works to better understand how the immune system functions to maintain tissue homeostatsis and how dysfunction can ultimately contribute to disease.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 2009, Creighton University
    • Ph.D., 2015, Washington University in St. Louis

Memberships and associations:

  • American Association for Cancer Research
  • Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer

Areas of interest

  • melanoma
  • dendritic cells
  • innate immunity
  • tumor microenvironment
  • cancer immunotherapy
  • myeloid cells

Honors and awards

  • Cancer Research Institute, Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship

Publications

Selected publications

  • Ruhland, M.K., Roberts, E.W., Cai, E., Mujal, A.M., Marchuk, K., Beppler, C., Nam, D., Serwas, N., Binnewies, M., Krummel, M.F., (2020). Visualizing synaptic transfer of tumor antigens among dendritic cells. Cancer Cell, 37(6):786-799.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.05.002.
  • Freedman, T.S., Headley, M.B., Serwas, N., Ruhland, M.K., Castellanos C.A., Combes, A.J., Krummel,. M.F., (2020). Lessons of COVID-19: A roadmap for post-pandemic science. J Exp Med, 217 (9): e20201276. doi:10.1084/jem.20201276
  • Binnewies, M., Mujal, A.M., Pollack, J.L., Combes, A.J., Hardison, E.A., Barry, K.C.,Tsui, J.,Ruhland, M.K., Kersten, K., Abushawish, M.A., Spasic, M., Giurintano, J.P., Chan, V.,Daud, A.I., Ha, P., Ye, C.J., Roberts, E.W., Krummel, M.F. (2019).Unleashing Type-2 Dendritic Cells to Drive Protective Antitumor CD4+ T cell Immunity. Cell. 177(3):556-571.e16. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.005
  • Ruhland M.K., Loza, A.J., Capietto, A.H., Luo, X., Knolhoff, B.L., Flanagan, K.C., Belt, B.A., Alspach, E., Leahy, K., Luo, J., Schaffer, A., Edwards, J.R., Longmore, G., Faccio, R., DeNardo, D.G., Stewart S.A., (2016). Stromal senescence establishes an immunosuppressive microenvironment that drives tumorigenesis.  Nature Communications.  7(11762).  doi:10.1038/ncomms11762
  • Ruhland M.K., Coussens, L.M., Stewart, S.A. (2016).  Senescence and cancer: An evolving inflammatory paradox. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1865(1):14-22. doi: 10.1016/j.bbcan.2015.10.001
  • Luo, X., Fu, Y., Loza, A.J., Murali, B., Leahy, K., Ruhland, M.K., Gang, M., Su, X., Zamani, A., Shi, Y., Lavine, K., Ornitz, D.M., Weilbaecher, K.N., Long, F., Novack, D.V., Faccio, R., Longmore, G., Stewart, S.A. (2016). Stromal-initiated changes in the bone promote metastatic niche development. Cell Reports. 14(1):82-92. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.016
  • Alspach, E., Flanagan K.C., Luo X., Ruhland M.K., Huang H., Pazolli E., Donlin M.J., Marsh T., Piwnica-Worms D., Monahan J., Novack D.V., McAllister S.S., Stewart S.A. (2014). p38MAPK plays a crucial role in stromal mediated tumorigenesis. Cancer Discovery. 4(6):716-29. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-13-0743
  • Luo, X., Ruhland, M.K., Pazolli, E., Lind, A.C., Stewart, S.A. (2011).  Osteopontin stimulatespreneoplastic cellular proliferation through activation of the MAPKpathway. Molecular Cancer Research. 9(8):1018-1029. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-10-0472

Publications

  • Holistic Characterization of Tumor Monocyte-to-Macrophage Differentiation Integrates Distinct Immune Phenotypes in Kidney Cancer

    Cancer Immunology Research
    1. Adriana M. Mujal
    2. Alexis J. Combes
    3. Arjun A. Rao
    4. Mikhail Binnewies
    5. Bushra Samad
    6. Jessica Tsui
    7. Alexandre Boissonnas
    8. Joshua L. Pollack
    9. Rafael J. Arg€uello
    10. Maxwell V. Meng
    11. Sima P. Porten
    12. Megan K. Ruhland
    13. Kevin C. Barry
    14. Vincent Chan
    15. Matthew F. Krummel

  • Visualizing Synaptic Transfer of Tumor Antigens among Dendritic Cells

    Cancer Cell
    1. Megan K. Ruhland
    2. Edward W. Roberts
    3. En Cai
    4. Adriana M. Mujal
    5. Kyle Marchuk
    6. Casey Beppler
    7. David Nam
    8. Nina K. Serwas
    9. Mikhail Binnewies
    10. Matthew F. Krummel

  • Unleashing Type-2 Dendritic Cells to Drive Protective Antitumor CD4+ T Cell Immunity

    Cell
    1. Mikhail Binnewies
    2. Adriana M. Mujal
    3. Joshua L. Pollack
    4. Alexis J. Combes
    5. Emily A. Hardison
    6. Kevin C. Barry
    7. Jessica Tsui
    8. Megan K. Ruhland
    9. Kelly Kersten
    10. Marwan A. Abushawish
    11. Marko Spasic
    12. Jonathan P. Giurintano
    13. Vincent Chan
    14. Adil I. Daud
    15. Patrick Ha
    16. Chun J. Ye
    17. Edward W. Roberts
    18. Matthew F. Krummel

  • Senescence and cancer

    Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer
    1. Megan K. Ruhland
    2. Lisa M. Coussens
    3. Sheila A. Stewart

  • Stromal-Initiated Changes in the Bone Promote Metastatic Niche Development

    Cell Reports
    1. Xianmin Luo
    2. Yujie Fu
    3. Andrew J. Loza
    4. Bhavna Murali
    5. Kathleen M. Leahy
    6. Megan K. Ruhland
    7. Margery Gang
    8. Xinming Su
    9. Ali Zamani
    10. Yu Shi
    11. Kory J. Lavine
    12. David M. Ornitz
    13. Katherine N. Weilbaecher
    14. Fanxin Long
    15. Deborah V. Novack
    16. Roberta Faccio
    17. Gregory D. Longmore
    18. Sheila A. Stewart

  • Stromal senescence establishes an immunosuppressive microenvironment that drives tumorigenesis

    Nature communications
    1. Megan K. Ruhland
    2. Andrew J. Loza
    3. Aude Helene Capietto
    4. Xianmin Luo
    5. Brett L. Knolhoff
    6. Kevin C. Flanagan
    7. Brian A. Belt
    8. Elise Alspach
    9. Kathleen Leahy
    10. Jingqin Luo
    11. Andras Schaffer
    12. John R. Edwards
    13. Gregory Longmore
    14. Roberta Faccio
    15. David G. Denardo
    16. Sheila A. Stewart

  • P38MAPK plays a crucial role in stromal-mediated tumorigenesis

    Cancer discovery
    1. Elise Alspach
    2. Kevin C. Flanagan
    3. Xianmin Luo
    4. Megan K. Ruhland
    5. Hui Huang
    6. Ermira Pazolli
    7. Maureen J. Donlin
    8. Timothy Marsh
    9. David Piwnica-Worms
    10. Joseph Monahan
    11. Deborah V. Novack
    12. Sandra S. McAllister
    13. Sheila A. Stewart

  • Osteopontin stimulates preneoplastic cellular proliferation through activation of the MAPK pathway

    Molecular Cancer Research
    1. Xianmin Luo
    2. Megan K. Ruhland
    3. Ermira Pazolli
    4. Anne C. Lind
    5. Sheila A. Stewart