A microscope image of melanoma cells. The green T cell in the center has been activated and is producing interferon-gamma (pink/red), a signaling molecule necessary for certain cancer immunotherapies to work. The Oyler-Yaniv lab is studying how interferon-gamma spreads through dense tissues in the body. Image: Oyler-Yaniv lab
The immune system is a crucial part of our survival, regularly fending off wide-ranging attacks on the body, both internal and external. Unsurprisingly, the elegant defense system that protects us from viruses, bacterial infections, cancer, and other threats is immensely complicated. Each time it mounts a response, it must quickly and carefully orchestrate communication across vast numbers of cells and molecules.
Jennifer Oyler-Yaniv is working to figure out how, exactly, the immune system does this — and when and why it fails.
“There's always the next question, the next thing we don’t understand. As a scientist, I have full creative freedom to get obsessed with problems,” said Oyler-Yaniv, who is an assistant professor of systems biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.
In an ironic twist, Oyler-Yaniv launched her lab at HMS — which she co-leads with her partner, Alon Oyler-Yaniv — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when immunology was garnering new levels of attention from scientists and the public alike.
Straddling the worlds of immunology and systems biology, the Oyler-Yaniv lab is using cancer as a model system to uncover the basic principles of how cells in the immune system communicate. In a conversation with Harvard Medicine News, Oyler-Yaniv discussed her interest in immunology, her approach to research, and her insights about the immune system and cancer.