Exhaustion
Exhaustion
Jessica Thaxton, Ph.D, MsCR
Principal Investigator
Dr. Thaxton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Thaxton received her BA from Amherst College and her PhD from Brown University in Pathobiology & Immunology. Dr. Thaxton trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the field of ER stress and Immunity in the laboratory of Zihai Li, MD, PhD. During her postdoctoral work Dr. Thaxton held a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and obtained a Master's in Clinical Research in the study of clinical trials. As an Assistant Professor Dr. Thaxton’s work on tumor-induced ER dysfunction in tumor infiltrating T cells was supported by the NCI Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology K12 Fellowship. The Thaxton lab has delineated negative roles for the PERK axis in T cell-mediated tumor immunity and continues to study how the solid tumor microenvironment undermines immune-mediated tumor control through dysregulation of ER stress signaling, ER structure, and proteostasis.
Research Team
Katie Hurst, MPH
Lab Manager
Katie graduated from Clemson University in 2012 with a BA in Biological Sciences with a minor in Psychology. Katie’s interest in cancer biology led her to the Medical University of South Carolina after graduation to pursue a career in molecular cancer research, whereafter she transitioned into cancer immunology research. She holds a special interest in the patient psychological response to cancer and how the immune system can regulate this response and vice versa. Katie serves as lab manager for the Thaxton Lab during which she pursued her Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Health Behavior at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she graduated in 2020.
Ellie Hunt
Graduate Student
Ellie graduated from Anderson University in 2019 with a BS in biochemistry. Through her coursework and experience in hospital internships, she gained an interest in immunology and, after a year as a lab technician studying bioenergetics of hepatocellular carcinoma, she enrolled in MUSC’s College of Graduate Studies with an interest in immunotherapy and T cell metabolism. She joined the Thaxton Lab whose interests align with her passion for discovering more efficacious, affordable immunotherapies through modulation of T cell stress responses and metabolism. She is now enrolled in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD program where she continues to study the effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress on T cell metabolism and antitumor efficacy.
Brian Riesenberg, Ph.D
Postdoctoral scholar
Dr. Riesenberg is a postdoctoral scholar and PIRE Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He received his B.S. in Biology from Barton College as a 4-year member the men's varsity soccer program before obtaining his Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2019. Prior to joining the Thaxton Lab, Brian's research took him to the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at The Ohio State University where he focused on T cell exhaustion, development of high-dimensional spectral flow cytometry technology, preclinical in vivo modeling, and technology commercialization. His current work is focused on translating the discoveries made by the research group into novel therapeutics to improve patient outcomes.
Sinead Beausang
Research Technician
Sinead graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2024 after majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry. Sinead officially joined the Thaxton Lab as a Research Technician in May 2024 after working as a volunteer while she completed her undergraduate degree. Her undergraduate education and experiences amplified her passion for research and public health advocacy. Sinead is excited by the Thaxton Lab's focus on translational research to find more effective cancer treatments that enhance quality of life for patients. Sinead is interested in understanding the mechanistic pathways underlying the responses of both immune and tumor cells to the tumor microenvironment to improve immunotherapeutic treatments. In the future, Sinead is interested in pursuing a medical degree with the goal of becoming a physician-scientist to apply research findings to improve clinical outcomes.
Coral Del Mar Alicea Pauneto
Graduate Student
Coral graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao in 2015 with a BS in Industrial Chemistry. During her undergraduate year, she did multiple research internships in neuroscience and pharmacology leading her to pursue graduate studies. After graduating, she was accepted into the Pharmacology department at UNC with an interest in neuro-oncology and cancer immunotherapy. At the beginning of her graduate student career, she focused on studying myeloid-directed immunotherapy to treat medulloblastoma. After this experience, she pursued her interest in understanding immunotherapy from a cell biology perspective, where she then joined the Thaxton lab. Coral studies the chronic role of ATF4, a transcription factor important in endoplasmic reticulum stress in tumor-infiltrating T cells, with the ultimate goal of discovering an immunotherapy target.
Andrew Kennedy
Graduate Student
Andrew graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BS in Biology in 2016, where he studied the effects of electronic cigarettes on lung disease. After graduation he led projects as a research technician studying the interplay between endoplasmic reticulum quality control and autophagy within protein-misfolding diseases. After becoming a PhD candidate in UNC's Cell Biology and Physiology department, Andrew joined the Thaxton lab to apply his interest in endoplasmic reticulum biology for the improvement of cancer immunotherapies.
Genevieve Clutton, DPhil
Research Associate
Dr. Clutton received her BS from the University of Bath (UK) and her DPhil (PhD) in Immunology from the University of Oxford (UK). She trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Nilu Goonetilleke, PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, investigating CD8 T cell responses to HIV-1 and other viruses. She obtained independent funding to study T cell responses in the context of Kaposi’s sarcoma and obesity, which fueled her interest in the effects of metabolism on the efficacy of T cell therapies
Clinical Collaborators
Robert Esther, MD, MS
Clinical Collaborator
Dr. Esther is the sole Orthopedic Oncologist at UNC Chapel Hill and one of the state’s leading orthopedic tumor surgeons. Dr. Esther received his MD from Vanderbilt University and completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency at UNC Chapel Hill. He then continued his training as a Musculoskeletal Oncology Fellow at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Esther has since returned to UNC Chapel Hill as a Professor of Orthopaedics where he serves as a clinical collaborator to Dr. Thaxton’s sarcoma immunotherapy group, enabling the formation of a translationally focused research group dedicated to development of novel immunotherapies for sarcoma and metastatic bone disease patients. Dr. Esther is enthusiastic to contribute to the basic science direction of Dr. Thaxton's research program to generate new clinical trials for sarcoma patients at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
David Neskey, MD, MsCR
Clinical Collaborator
Dr. Neskey is one of South Carolina's leading head and neck tumor surgeons and serves as the Program Director of Head & Neck Oncology at Trident Health System in Charleston, SC. Dr. Neskey received his MD from Albany Medical College and completed his residency at the University of Miami. He then continued his training as a Head and Neck Oncology Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to joining Trident Health System, Dr. Neskey was the Program Director for Head & Neck Surgical Oncology fellowship program at the Medical University of South Carolina. Additionally, he was co-program leader for Cancer Immunology at Hollings Cancer Center and was the principal investigator on NIH funded head and neck cancer research and investigator initiated therapeutic clinical trials for patients with head and neck cancer.
Stergios Moschos, MD
Clinical Collaborator
Dr. Moschos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Moschos completed medical school at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens in Athens, Greece and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Tufts University while serving as a research fellow in the Division of Endocrinology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he studied the impact of acute leptin deficiency (by acute starvation) on adaptive immune response. He completed his clinical fellowship training in hematology/oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Dr. Moschos has a research focus on identifying molecules that are important for melanoma development and progression, identifying mechanisms of action of FDA-approved and investigational agents in melanoma
Lab Alumni
Alex Andrews, PhD
Postdoc
Kiley Lawrence
Technician/
Medical Student
Megan Tennant, MS
PhD Student
Molly Sekar, MD
Medical Student
Sydney Larsen
Undergraduate
Student
Evelyn Gandy
Research Technician
K9 Unit
Julie Millie Cal & Morrie Kona Norm
