{"entity":{"id":"thomas-gajewski","kind":"person","name":"Thomas F. Gajewski","aka":[],"tldr":"Defined the T-cell-inflamed tumour, discovered STING's role in anti-tumour immunity and showed gut bacteria shape immunotherapy response.","summary":"Thomas Gajewski defined the T-cell-inflamed versus non-inflamed tumour microenvironment phenotype that predicts checkpoint inhibitor response, showed that the STING pathway is required for innate immune sensing of tumours, and led the 2015 Science paper showing commensal Bifidobacterium enhances anti-PD-L1 efficacy, one of the founding results of microbiome immuno-oncology. He leads immunotherapy research at the University of Chicago.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gajewski%20TF%5BAuthor%5D%20tumor%20immunity"}],"tags":["immunotherapy","microbiome","sting"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["checkpoint-inhibitor","sting-agonist"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["uchicago-cancer"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"AbbVie Foundation Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy, University of Chicago","institutionId":"uchicago-cancer","specialisms":["Tumour immunology","STING pathway","Microbiome and immunotherapy","T-cell-inflamed tumours"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gajewski%20TF%5BAuthor%5D%20tumor%20immunity"}],"papers":[{"title":"Commensal Bifidobacterium promotes antitumor immunity and facilitates anti-PD-L1 efficacy","journal":"Science","year":2015,"doi":"10.1126/science.aac4255"},{"title":"STING-dependent cytosolic DNA sensing mediates innate immune recognition of immunogenic tumors","journal":"Immunity","year":2014,"doi":"10.1016/j.immuni.2014.10.017"}]},"route":"/people/thomas-gajewski/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"},{"id":"sting-agonist","kind":"technology","name":"STING & innate immune agonists","route":"/technologies/sting-agonist/"}],"institution":[{"id":"uchicago-cancer","kind":"institution","name":"University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/uchicago-cancer/"}]}}