Dr. Burrack completed his PhD in Immunology in 2014 under the guidance of Dr. Ronald Gill at the University of Colorado-Anschutz. For his degree, Adam studied the ability of autoreactive T cells to simultaneously respond to allogeneic MHC of transplanted islets in diabetic NOD mice. Adam then moved to the U of MN to conduct postdoctoral studies with Dr. Brian Fife. In this role and in collaboration with Dr. Marc Jenkins, Adam defined donor MHC-specific CD4 T cell peptide specificities that associate with transplant rejection. Adam then joined the laboratory of Dr. Ingunn Stromnes in 2017 to study T cell responses against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) and developed a syngeneic, implantable model of PDA in which mice respond to a tumor-specific target. Using this system Adam and Dr. Stromnes have defined immunotherapy regimens in which endogenous T cells eradicate neoantigen high PDA. Active work is defining T cell mechanisms driving immunotherapy outcomes and uncovering native PDA targets of T cell-mediated immunity. Future work will study how immunotherapy fails to eradicate PDA in the context of clinically relevant comorbidities (e.g. aging and hyperglycemia) and determine therapies to overcome these barriers.
