Chris Zahm joined the McNeel lab in September 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow through the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the UW Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC). Chris obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Aug. 2014.

Under the broad laboratory goal of developing vaccines that can elicit prostate cancer-destructive immune responses Chris’s research is focused on the expression of immune checkpoint proteins (PD-1, CTLA-4, LAG3, TIM3, etc) during and after CD8+ T cell activation. He is studying DNA vaccine design and adjuvants with the goal of activating a cytotoxic anti-tumor response with minimal up regulation of regulatory molecules; thereby optimizing the efficacy of DNA vaccines and likely eliminating the requisite of secondary checkpoint blocking therapies.