Dr. Ben-Chetrit is a Principal Investigator at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, focused on the complex interactions between tumor cells and their adjacent stroma that shape immune responses in the tumor microenvironment (TME). His research interests are geared toward developing novel frameworks to overcome two formidable obstacles to immunotherapy in cancer patients: (i) the lack of neoantigens and (ii) the effective immune suppression of solid tumors by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). To tackle these limitations, the lab has developed a novel immunization strategy to expose existing neoantigens in cancers with low mutation burden and genetic approaches to reprogram TAMs into immunostimulatory macrophages. He earned his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he studied cell- intrinsic and cell-extrinsic mechanisms that propel metastasis triple-negative breast cancer. His work led to the identification of a novel metastasis driver, amplified in breast cancer patients, and drug screen that identified set of inhibitors that were licensed for further development. At Weill Cornell his current emphasis focuses developing spatial biology tools and harnessing macrophage biology for innate immune-oncology clinical trials in cancer patients.
