Welcome to the Patnaik Lab!

We are part of the Section of Hematology/Oncology within the Department of Medicine, Biological Sciences Division and Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Chicago. Our mission statement is to find definitive cures for prostate cancer. Several drugs targeting dysregulated signaling pathways in tumor cells have been deployed in cancer therapy. However, their impact on immune responses within the tumor microenvironment is poorly understood. The goal of our interdisciplinary translational research program is to develop targeted therapeutic strategies to enhance the responsiveness of prostate and other cancers to immunotherapy. Our current efforts in the laboratory and clinic, blend a unique combination of expertise in cancer biology and immunology, medical oncology and experimental therapeutics.  We are specifically actively investigating how perturbation of cell survival signaling, DNA repair and innate immune sensing pathways can reprogram the tumor immune microenvironment, thus resulting in tumor eradication.