Rebecca (Becky) Richards, MD, PhD
Position title: Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Email: rmrichards3@wisc.edu
Website: Lab Website
Phone: 608-265-9645
Address:
1111 Highland Ave, WIMR 4153
Research Interests
The Richards Lab focuses on developing novel immunotherapies for high-risk pediatric leukemias including acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The primary focus of the lab is to optimize chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies and other immune effector cells. There are many reasons that CAR T cells have not been successfully implemented in AML, including on-target, off-tumor toxicity to healthy tissues, tumor heterogeneity, and an inhibitory cytokine milieu. Using a variety of immunologic assays, we identify mechanisms that contribute to these barriers to translation, and implement next-generation CAR T cell engineering strategies to overcome them, with the ultimate goal of expanding access to these powerful immunotherapies.