Jason M. Schenkel, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Departments of Translational Molecular Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Schenkel earned his Ph.D in Immunology (2014) and M.D. (2016) from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His postgraduate training included a clinical residency in Clinical Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, a research fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a clinical fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

After completing medical school training and residency in clinical pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Schenkel began his post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. In Dr. Jacks' lab, his work demonstrated that TCF-1+ CD8+ T cells are found within both tumor and tumor draining LN (dLN), but phenotypically and functionally differ based on location. The findings reveealed the importance of migratory cDC1 cells in boosting TCF-1+ CD8+ T cells in the dLN, and provide a rationale for targeting DCs in immunotherapy.

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Jason M. Schenkel, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Departments of Translational Molecular Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Schenkel earned his Ph.D in Immunology (2014) and M.D. (2016) from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His postgraduate training included a clinical residency in Clinical Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, a research fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a clinical fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

After completing medical school training and residency in clinical pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Schenkel began his post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. In Dr. Jacks' lab, his work demonstrated that TCF-1+ CD8+ T cells are found within both tumor and tumor draining LN (dLN), but phenotypically and functionally differ based on location. The findings reveealed the importance of migratory cDC1 cells in boosting TCF-1+ CD8+ T cells in the dLN, and provide a rationale for targeting DCs in immunotherapy.

The broad goal of Dr. Schenkel’s research is to study CD8+ T cell responses that develop during tumor initiation and progression. He will dissect the factors responsible for driving the loss of CD8+ T cell functions using physiologically relevant autochthonous mouse models and primary human samples. In particular, he will explore the relationship and influence of tumor evolution, metastasis, microenvironment, and time in driving T cell dysfunction. Dr. Schenkel hypothesizes that CD8+ T cells undergo multiple changes in programming, phenotype, and function, due to factors including when and how the T cell was activated, when it traffics to tumors, and local cues within the tumor and tissue microenvironment. The Schenkel Laboratory’s long-term objectives include to dissect mechanisms that drive T cell dysfunction, and to leverage these findings for next generation immunotherapies.

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