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Caitlin Zebley, MD, PhD
Caitlin Zebley, MD, PhD

Caitlin Zebley, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

Departments

Education

BS (Chemistry, Biology) - Iona University, New Rochelle, NY
MD - Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, IL
Pediatric Residency - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
PhD - St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memphis, TN

Awards

2023 NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08)
2023 SITC Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network (WIN) Leadership Institute
2021 Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Young Investigator Award
2021 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Young Investigator Award

Research Interests

  • Fundamental mechanisms of T cell biology

Selected Publications

Kang TG, Lan X, Chen H, Alli S, Lim S-E, Bhatara S, Vasandan AB, Ward G, Bentivegna S, Jang J, Spatz ML, Han J-H, Schlotmann BC, Jespersen JS, Derenzo C, Vogel P, Yu J, Baylin S, Jones P, O’Connell C, Gronbaek K, Youngblood B, Zebley CC. Epigenetic regulators of clonal hematopoiesis control CD8 T cell stemness during immunotherapy. Science Oct 2024. doi:10.1126.science.adl4492.

Zebley CC, Zehn D, Gottschalk S, Chi H. T cell dysfunction and therapeutic intervention in cancer. Nat Immunol Aug 2024. doi:10.1038/s41590-024-01896-9.

Mi T, Soerens AG, Alli S, Kang TG, Vasandan AB, Wang Z, Vezys V, Kimura S, Iacobucci I, Baylin SB, Jones PA, Hiner C, Mueller A, Goldstein H, Mullighan CG, Zebley CC*, Masopust D, Youngblood B. Conserved epigenetic hallmarks of T cell aging during immunity and malignancy. Nat Aging Aug 2024. doi:10.1038/s43587-024-00649-5. *Co-corresponding author

Lan X, Zebley CC, Youngblood B. Cellular and molecular waypoints along the path of T cell exhaustion. Sci Immunol Sep, 2023. doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.adg3868.

Zebley CC, Youngblood B. T cell TET2 disruption cuts the breaks on antitumor CAR T cell therapy. Trends Immunol Jun 2023. doi:10.1016/j.it.2023.03.008.

Lamarche C, Ward-Hartstonge K, Mi T, Lin DTS, Huang Q, Brown A, Edwards K, Novakovsky GE, Qi CN, Kobor MS, Zebley CC, Weber EW, Mackall CL, Levings MK. Tonic-signaling chimeric antigen receptors drive human regulatory T cell exhaustion. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA Apr 2023. doi:10.1073/pnas.2219086120.

Schulz AM, Zebley CC, Youngblood B, Zehn D. Tapping the keg of discovery to advance T cell therapy. Nat Immunol Feb 2023. doi:10.1038/s41590-022-01401-0.

Zebley CC, Youngblood B. Improving antitumor T cells. Science Nov 2022. doi:10.1126/science.adf0546.

Talleur AC, Qudeimat A, Metais J-Y, Langfitt D, Mamcarz E, Crawford JC, Huang S, Cheng C, Hurley C, Madden R, Sharma A, Suliman A, Srinivasan A, Velasquez MP, Obeng EA, Willis C, Akel S, Karol SE, Inaba H, Bragg A, Zheng W, Zhou SM, Schell S, Tuggle-Brown M, Cullins D, Patil SL, Li Y, Thomas PG, Zebley C, Youngblood B, Pui C-H, Lockey T, Geiger TL, Meagher MM, Triplett BM, Gottschalk S. Preferential expansion of CD8+ CD19-CAR T cells postinfusion and the role of disease burden on outcome in pediatric B-ALL. Blood Adv Nov 2022. doi:10.1182/bloodadvances.2021006293.

Zebley CC, Youngblood B. Mechanisms of T cell exhaustion guiding next-generation immunotherapy. Trends Cancer Sep 2022. doi:10.1016/j.trecan.2022.04.004.

Zebley CC, Akondy RS, Youngblood BA, Kissick HT. Defining the molecular hallmarks of T-cell memory. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol Mar 2022. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a037804.

Zebley CC, Brown C, Mi T, Fan Y, Alli S, Boi S, Galletti G, Lugli E, Langfitt D, Metais J-Y, Lockey T, Meagher M, Triplett B, Talleur AC, Gottschalk S, Youngblood B. CD19-CAR T cells undergo exhaustion DNA methylation programming in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cell Rep Nov 30;37(9):110079, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110079. PMID: 34852226

Prinzing B, Zebley CC*, Petersen CT, Fan Y, Anido AA, Yi Z, Nguyen P, Houke H, Bell M, Haydar D, Brown C, Boi SK, Alli S, Crawford JC, Riberdy JM, Park JJ, Zhou S, Velasquez MP, DeRenzo C, Lazzarotto CR, Tsai SQ, Vogel P, Pruett-Miller SM, Langfitt DM, Gottschalk S, Youngblood B, Krenciute G. Deleting DNMT3A in CAR T cells prevents exhaustion and enhances antitumor activity. Sci Transl Med Nov 17;13(620):eabh0272, 2021. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh0272. Epub 2021 Nov 17. PMID: 34788079. *Co-first author

Zebley CC, Abdelsamed HA, Ghoneim HE, Alli S, Brown C, Haydar D, Mi T, Harris T, McGargill MA, Krenciute G, Youngblood B. Proinflammatory cytokines promote TET2-mediated DNA demethylation during CD8 T cell effector differentiation. Cell Rep Oct 12;37(2):109796, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109796. PMID: 34644568

Zebley CC, Gottschalk S, Youngblood B. Rewriting history: Epigenetic reprogramming of CD8+ T cell differentiation to enhance immunotherapy. Trends in Immunology 2020.

Abdelsamed HA*, Zebley CC*, Nguyen H*, Rutishauser RL, Fan Y, Ghoneim H, Crawford JC, Alfei F, Alli S, Ribeiro, SP, Serti E, Castellaw A, McGargill MA, Jin H, Boi SK, Serti E, Turka LA, Busch ME, Stone M, Deeks SG, Sekaly RP, Zehn D, James E, Nepom GT, Youngblood B. Human self-reactive CD8 T cells acquire stem-cell memory-associated epigenetic programs during development of type 1 diabetes. Nature Immunology 21:578-587, 2020.

Fonseca R, Beura LK, Quarnstrom CF, Ghoneim HE, Fan Y, Zebley CC, Scott MC, Fares-Frederickson NJ, Wijeyesinghe S, Thompson EA, da Silva HB, Vezys V, Youngblood B, Masopust D. Developmental plasticity allows outside-in immune responses by resident memory T cells. Nature Immunology 21:412-421, 2020.

Abdelsamed HA, Moustaki A, Fan Y, Dogra P, Ghoneim HE, Zebley CC, Triplett BM, Sekaly RP, Youngblood B. Human memory CD8 T cell effector potential is epigenetically preserved during in vivo homeostasis. Journal of Experimental Medicine 214(6):1593-1606, 2017

Last update: November 2024

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