Patrick Reeves, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Reeves and his team are interested in interrogating the immune system in the context of vaccination and disease to identify drivers of immune protection and immune signatures with prognostic or therapeutic value.
Using high-parameter immune profiling together with classical assays and mechanistic studies, the goal is to develop new vaccines and therapeutic approaches. Current work is focused on immune responses to influenza vaccination in both healthy and immune-compromised individuals, development of a novel vaccine platform, and detailed profiling of tumors from prostate, mesothelioma, and lung cancers. To drive these studies, Dr. Reeves and his team have developed expertise in mass cytometry, spectral flow cytometry, and a repertoire of computational tools which can be applied to clinical samples as well as in model systems of disease.
Most recently, Dr. Reeves together with Dr. Sirbulescu and the VIC team have developed a multi-modal high-parameter imaging platform that uses multiple mass spectrometry based approaches to build highly detailed and comprehensive tissue maps. These molecular and cellular tissue maps can be used to identify analytes, cell populations, and spatial relationships that can inform therapeutic development and clinical decision making.
The deep immune profiling and computational tools developed by Dr. Reeves and his team have enabled multiple collaborations to identify links between immune profiles and clinical outcomes in the context of hematology/oncology, lung cancer, transplant surgery, and trauma surgery.
Prior Experience
During Dr. Reeves’ thesis work, he investigated how microbes can manipulate host cell signaling networks to promote their pathogenic program. His work uncovered flexibility in the mechanisms by which microbes recruit and hijack host kinases. This understanding led to the insight that the cancer drug Gleevec can protect mice from lethal poxvirus infections.
His initial post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School focused on mechanistic studies of two chemokine receptors linked to multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease using cell biology and cutting edge microscopy.
Academic Credentials
- B.S. Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
- Ph.D. Microbiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- Post-doctoral fellowship Cell Biology/Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA