Relationship between Tumour microenvironment and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease during immunotherapy

PROJECT OVERVIEW

This DPhil project sits at the interface of cancer and cardiovascular immunology, investigating how tumour-driven immune responses reshape systemic immunity and influence vascular inflammation. By integrating approaches across disciplines, it seeks to define how immune activation is coordinated across tissues and how this balance may become disrupted. The findings will provide a foundation for next-generation approaches to disease management.

• Cancer immunology transformed cancer treatment by restoring anti-tumour immunity, delivering durable responses in patients with advanced disease. However, this therapeutic success has revealed an increased risk of cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction and stroke. The biological basis of this trade-off in cancer and cardiovascular immunology remains poorly understood.
• This project addresses a fundamental question at the intersection of cancer and cardiovascular biology: how does dysregulation of the immune response in cancer reshape inflammatory processes in the vasculature? In order to do this, we need to establish the relationship between the tumour microenvironment and the atherosclerotic plaque immune landscape.
• The DPhil will investigate how tumour-associated immune responses influence systemic immunity and vascular inflammation. Using atherosclerosis-prone mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD), the project will examine how distinct tumour environments shape immune cell behaviour across tissues, and how these systemic changes relate to disease processes in the vessel wall.
• Particular focus will be placed on key immune populations that operate at the interface of tumour and vascular biology, and how their functional states are modulated under different conditions and their contribution can affect disease in the tumour and atherosclerotic lesions.
• This work brings together concepts and approaches from cancer immunology and cardiovascular science to address a clinically significant problem with growing relevance. The project is designed to provide a broad yet mechanistically informed understanding of how immune responses are coordinated across tissues in health and disease.
• The expected outcome is to define new links between tumour and vascular immunology, providing a foundation for improved risk stratification and the development of safer therapeutic strategies.

KEYWORDS

Anti-tumour immunity, vascular immunity, checkpoint blockade, CD8 T cells, macrophages

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

The student will be based at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology which is a world-renowned institute and is housed in a state-of-the-art research facility. This project provides broad training in cancer biology and immunology covering a range of cellular, molecular and functional immune assays. Students have access to cutting-edge technologies such as disease mouse models of cancer, multiplex imaging, spectral flow cytometry, CYTOF. The Gérard Lab and Monaco Lab have complementary skills in tumour and vascular immunology, and are highly collaborative. There is extensive technical support in all techniques required for this project and both labs provide a supportive environment in which PhD students thrive.

A core curriculum of 20 lectures will be taken in the first term of year 1 to provide a solid foundation in immunology and data analysis. Students will attend weekly departmental meetings and will be expected to attend seminars within the department and those relevant in the wider University. Students will also attend external scientific conferences where they will be expected to present the research findings.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Lau et al. (2025) Nature Communications, 16.
Mazet JM. et al, (2023), Nature Communications, 14
Headley MB. et al, (2016), Nature, 531, 513 - 517
Nosalski R. et al, (2024), Front Cardiovasc Med, 11
Dib L. et al, (2023), Nature Cardiovascular Research, 2, 853 - 853

THEMES

Interacting Systems

CONTACT INFORMATION OF ALL SUPERVISORS

Audrey Gérard

Claudia Monaco