Anthony E. Zamora, PhD

Assistant Professor, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Microbiology & Immunology

Locations

MFRC 6072

Contact Information

Education

PhD, Immunology, University of California, Davis, 2015

Learn more about the Zamora lab

Research Experience

Antigen Presentation
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes
Cell Engineering
Disease Models, Animal
Flow Cytometry
Immunity
immunology
Immunotherapy
Killer Cells, Natural
Leukemia, B-Cell
Single-Cell Analysis
T-Lymphocytes

Research Interests

Research in the Zamora lab spans the fields of viral and cancer immunology, with a special focus on identifying ways to modulate the immune system to more effectively target and eliminate virally infected or cancerous cells. Along these lines, the lab utilizes cellular-based engineering approaches that aim to increase the specificity of immune cells for their targets and at the same time decrease the likelihood of off-target toxicities. A longstanding goal in the lab has also been to help address the current disparities in cancer research by developing reagents, assays, and tools that provide a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern antitumor immunity across diverse demographic groups.

Current research in the Zamora lab focuses on: (1) discovering tumor antigens that serve as immunogenic targets, (2) identifying the mechanisms involved in the immune system’s ability to generate antitumor specificities, (3) characterizing the phenotypic, functional, and receptor repertoires of NK cells and neoantigen-specific T cells, and (4) exploring ways to translate these findings in order to expand on the current therapeutic options used to treat cancer.

DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion neoantigens elicit rare endogenous T cell responses that potentiate cell therapy for fibrolamellar carcinoma.

(Kirk AM, Crawford JC, Chou CH, Guy C, Pandey K, Kozlik T, Shah RK, Chung S, Nguyen P, Zhang X, Wang J, Bell M, Mettelman RC, Allen EK, Pogorelyy MV, Kim H, Minervina AA, Awad W, Bajracharya R, White T, Long D Jr, Gordon B, Morrison M, Glazer ES, Murphy AJ, Jiang Y, Fitzpatrick EA, Yarchoan M, Sethupathy P, Croft NP, Purcell AW, Federico SM, Stewart E, Gottschalk S, Zamora AE, DeRenzo C, Strome SE, Thomas PG.) Cell Rep Med. 2024 Mar 19;5(3):101469 PMID: 38508137 PMCID: PMC10983114 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85188438525 03/21/2024
Widening demographic gaps in CAR-T therapy utilization for multiple myeloma in the United States.

(Lin M, Estrada-Merly N, Eapen M, Zamora AE, Pezzin LE, Winn AN, Philip J, Schinke C, Drobyski WR, Anderson LD Jr, D'Souza A.) Bone Marrow Transplant. 2023 Dec;58(12):1400-1402 PMID: 37673983 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85170080925 09/07/2023
MICROGLIAL CELL EXPRESSION OF THE TYPE 2 CANNABINOID RECEPTOR REGULATES IMMUNE-MEDIATED NEUROINFLAMMATION.

(Moe A, Rayasam A, Sauber G, Shah RK, Yuan CY, Szabo A, Moore BM, Colonna M, Cui W, Romero J, Zamora AE, Hillard CJ, Drobyski WR.) bioRxiv. 2023 Aug 14 PMID: 37645843 PMCID: PMC10462026 08/30/2023
Simulating the Evolution of Signaling Signatures During CART-Cell and Tumor Cell Interactions.

(Shah V, Womack J, Zamora AE, Terhune SS, Dash RK.) Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2023 Jul;2023:1-5 PMID: 38083755 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85179638579 12/12/2023
Simulating the Evolution of Signaling Signatures during CART-Cell - Tumor Cell Interactions.

(Shah V, Womack J, Zamora AE, Terhune SS, Dash RK.) ArXiv. 2023 Feb 08 PMID: 36798455 PMCID: PMC9934731 02/18/2023
Utilizing immunogenomic approaches to prioritize targetable neoantigens for personalized cancer immunotherapy.

(Shah RK, Cygan E, Kozlik T, Colina A, Zamora AE.) Front Immunol. 2023;14:1301100 PMID: 38149253 PMCID: PMC10749952 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85180411127 12/27/2023
Antigen cross-presentation in young tumor-bearing hosts promotes CD8+ T cell terminal differentiation.

(Moustaki A, Crawford JC, Alli S, Fan Y, Boi S, Zamora AE, McDonald NMN, Wu G, Nakitandwe J, Newman S, Foy S, Silkov A, Thomas PG, Pappo A, Dyer MA, Stewart E, Federico S, Youngblood B.) Sci Immunol. 2022 Feb 04;7(68):eabf6136 PMID: 35119937 PMCID: PMC8990347 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85124175298 02/05/2022
Activation status dictates the function of unlicensed natural killer cells in mice and humans.

(Aguilar EG, Dunai C, Judge SJ, Zamora AE, Khuat LT, Vick LV, Collins CP, Stoffel KM, Alvarez M, Barao I, Miller JS, Blazar BR, Chevallier P, Retiere C, Canter RJ, Murphy WJ.) Blood Adv. 2021 Oct 26;5(20):4219-4232 PMID: 34496010 PMCID: PMC8945636 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85118595142 09/09/2021
Tumor-intrinsic and -extrinsic determinants of response to blinatumomab in adults with B-ALL.

(Zhao Y, Aldoss I, Qu C, Crawford JC, Gu Z, Allen EK, Zamora AE, Alexander TB, Wang J, Goto H, Imamura T, Akahane K, Marcucci G, Stein AS, Bhatia R, Thomas PG, Forman SJ, Mullighan CG, Roberts KG.) Blood. 2021 Jan 28;137(4):471-484 PMID: 32881995 PMCID: PMC7845009 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85099973176 09/04/2020
Pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia generate abundant and functional neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses.

(Zamora AE, Crawford JC, Allen EK, Guo XJ, Bakke J, Carter RA, Abdelsamed HA, Moustaki A, Li Y, Chang TC, Awad W, Dallas MH, Mullighan CG, Downing JR, Geiger TL, Chen T, Green DR, Youngblood BA, Zhang J, Thomas PG.) Sci Transl Med. 2019 Jun 26;11(498) PMID: 31243155 PMCID: PMC7020562 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068363631 06/28/2019
Genome-wide CRISPR screen reveals PSMA6 to be an essential gene in pancreatic cancer cells.

(Bakke J, Wright WC, Zamora AE, Oladimeji P, Crawford JC, Brewer CT, Autry RJ, Evans WE, Thomas PG, Chen T.) BMC Cancer. 2019 Mar 21;19(1):253 PMID: 30898113 PMCID: PMC6429770 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85063331223 03/23/2019
Lung γδ T Cells Mediate Protective Responses during Neonatal Influenza Infection that Are Associated with Type 2 Immunity.

(Guo XJ, Dash P, Crawford JC, Allen EK, Zamora AE, Boyd DF, Duan S, Bajracharya R, Awad WA, Apiwattanakul N, Vogel P, Kanneganti TD, Thomas PG.) Immunity. 2018 Sep 18;49(3):531-544.e6 PMID: 30170813 PMCID: PMC6345262 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85055586852 09/02/2018