Unlocking the immune system’s potential to fight skin cancer

When Karen Hastings, MD, PhD, chose to make Arizona her home, it wasn’t just the stunning desert landscapes and towering saguaros that drew her in, it was the chance to confront one of the state’s most pressing health issues: skin cancer. 

Hastings is a professor and the first chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. She helped develop the medical school curriculum as one of the college’s founding faculty members, and her research has been crucial in advancing science that could eventually lead to the development of vaccines for skin cancer.

“I think what attracts us as scientists is following our own ideas and the opportunity to build something with those ideas,” said Hastings, whose skin cancer research focuses on antigen presentation and T cell responses. “That has been a constant for me each step of the way.”

Identifying cancer targets

Early in her career, Hastings focused on melanoma, investigating how the immune system processes and presents melanoma antigens – unique molecules on the surface of cells that serve as identification tags. These tags enable the immune system to differentiate between the body’s own cells and foreign invaders including viruses, bacteria or cancerous cells that T cells are meant to eliminate. 

“In order for a T cell to see an antigen, that antigen has to be taken up by an antigen presenting cell,” Hastings explained.

For this to happen, antigens must be presented in a way that is easily detectable. This can be accomplished by major histocompatibility complex molecules, which act as display cases on the surface of cells and showcase fragments of antigens for T cells to identify. 

Read the feature on U of A Health Sciences Connect