Abby Overacre-Delgoffe earned an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Abby Overacre-Delgoffe, assistant professor in the Pitt School of Medicine’s Department of Immunology, earned a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases New Innovator Award for her project “Microbiota initiation of lymphangiogenesis.”

Overacre-Delgoffe will use the funding, totaling $1.5 million over five years, to research how gut bacteria drive the development of tertiary lymphoid structures, organized immune cell structures that often form at sites of inflammation, including tumors. The presence of tertiary lymphoid structures can predict response to immunotherapy and prognosis, so understanding how they develop could pave the way for new therapies to improve cancer outcomes.

A member of the Tumor Microenvironment Center at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Overacre-Delgoffe is a recipient of the Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. She is currently a member of the Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer Early Career Scientist Committee and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Women’s Task Force.