Immune suppression and racial disparities in pancreatic cancer progression

Dr. Nina Steele is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati. Sky Foundation supported her research at her former institution, Henry Ford Health in Detroit. Her laboratory focuses on improving outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients by researching the tumor microenvironment. She has worked on pancreatic cancer since her postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan as a member of the Pancreas Disease Initiative group, mentored throughout by several NIH-funded investigators. In 2022 she joined the Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center to start her own lab in the Department of Surgery. As one of five principal investigators in the center she worked with the clinic on translational projects — and Detroit’s diverse patient population and high-volume clinic gave her lab a rare opportunity to conduct high-impact disparities research.