Alvarez-Breckenridge Laboratory

The Alvarez-Breckenridge laboratory is a collaborative, translational research group that focuses on metastatic disease of the brain and spine. We study the unique tumor microenvironmental features of brain and spine metastasis and primary spine tumors by analyzing the cellular composition, associated cellular interactions, and the genetic, epigenetic and transcriptional basis of tumor formation and treatment resistance. We also explore the unique features of immune cell priming and trafficking, T-cell clonal expansion, and myeloid cell regulation within both cranial and extracranial sites of disease with a view to apply our findings to develop new immunotherapeutic, clinically translational approaches to treat these tumors.