David Woods, Ph.D.
mouseExperiment
An open-source R package and accompanying web-based dashboard for statistical analysis of preclinical tumor-growth studies.
Full-stack Ph.D. biomedical scientist with expertise spanning wet-lab research, biostatistics, computational biology, and software development.
Former NCI funded Assistant Professor and expert in translational oncology and immunology, with 17+ years experience turning data into discoveries; scientific leader and mentor experienced in securing research funding, building and directing multi-disciplinary teams, managing biopharma collaborations, and bridging dry-lab analytics with wet-lab execution.
Software
Probability Bio
I founded Probability Bio and built a modular Python ecosystem for running in silico clinical trials on multi-modal cancer patient data.
Impact
Research output
2,600+citations (Google Scholar)
18h-index
6 + 6first-author and senior-author papers
Publications in high-impact journals including Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Immunology Research, Nature Communications, Blood, JCI Insight, and Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
Biomarker discoveries
- CD4+CD38+CD39+ T cells predict checkpoint resistance Discovered and validated across clinical specimens, murine models, multispectral imaging, CITE-seq, and public scRNA-seq cohorts (Clinical Cancer Research, 2023; Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2022; JCI Insight, 2020).
- CD4 polarization phenotypes associated with reduced TIL expansion In melanoma patients treated with adoptive cell therapy (The Journal of Immunology, 2023).
- Serum IL-6 and CRP as prognostic biomarkers Associated with survival in checkpoint-treated melanoma (Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2020; 270+ citations).
- Ipilimumab associated immune changes are associated with nivolumab resistance Response-associated immunophenotypes in metastatic melanoma (JCI Insight, 2020).
- T-cell pSTAT3 expression and Treg function associated with benefit from adjuvant nivolumab PD-1 blockade induces pSTAT3 expression and results in reduced suppressive function (Clinical Cancer Research, 2018).
Clinical trials built on this research
NCT02032810
Phase I of Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Inhibitor Panobinostat With Ipilimumab With Unresectable III/IV Melanoma.
NCT02935790
Selective HDAC6 Inhibitor ACY-241 in Combination With Ipilimumab and Nivolumab.
NCT03565406
A Phase 1b Study of the Selective HDAC Inhibitor Mocetinostat in Combination With Ipilimumab and Nivolumab in Patients With Unresectable Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma.
NCT03999749
A Phase II Study of the Interleukin-6 Receptor Inhibitor Tocilizumab in Combination With Ipilimumab and Nivolumab in Patients With Unresectable Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma.
Funding
$10M+ competitive grant funding secured across federal, institutional, and industry sources.
Federal (NIH/NCI)
- K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award
- T32 Postdoctoral Trainee Grant
- Loan Repayment Program and renewals
Institutional
- NYU Langone
- Moffitt Cancer Center
- University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Industry
- Three sponsored research agreements, leading to initiation of two phase I clinical trials
- Research reagent funding
Selected talks
- 2022Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting
- 2019International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (CYTO) Annual Meeting
- 2017American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting
- 2016Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting
- 2016American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting
- 2012American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting
Publications
- A population of tumor-infiltrating CD4+ T cells co-expressing CD38 and CD39 is associated with checkpoint inhibitor resistance
- CD4 phenotypes are associated with reduced expansion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in melanoma patients treated with adoptive cell therapy
- Clinical and immune correlate results from a phase 1b study of the histone deacetylase inhibitor mocetinostat with ipilimumab and nivolumab in unresectable stage III/IV melanoma
- Phase II clinical and immune correlate study of adjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab for high-risk resected melanoma
- PhenoComb: a discovery tool to assess complex phenotypes in high-dimensional single-cell datasets
- Serum interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein are associated with survival in melanoma patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibition
- C reactive protein impairs adaptive immunity in immune cells of patients with melanoma
- Rapid expansion of highly functional antigen-specific T cells from patients with melanoma by nanoscale artificial antigen-presenting cells
- Nivolumab and ipilimumab are associated with distinct immune landscape changes and response-associated immunophenotypes
- HDAC6 selective inhibition of melanoma patient T-cells augments anti-tumor characteristics
- Association of tumor microenvironment T-cell repertoire and mutational load with clinical outcome after sequential checkpoint blockade in melanoma
- High-parameter single-cell analysis
- The class I/IV HDAC inhibitor mocetinostat increases tumor antigen presentation, decreases immune suppressive cell types and augments checkpoint inhibitor therapy
- Decreased suppression and increased phosphorylated STAT3 in regulatory T cells are associated with benefit from adjuvant PD-1 blockade in resected metastatic melanoma
- Predictors of responses to immune checkpoint blockade in advanced melanoma
- T cells lacking HDAC11 have increased effector functions and mediate enhanced alloreactivity in a murine model
- HDAC inhibition upregulates PD-1 ligands in melanoma and augments immunotherapy with PD-1 blockade
- Targeting histone deacetylase 6 mediates a dual anti-melanoma effect: Enhanced antitumor immunity and impaired cell proliferation
- Histone deacetylase 11: A novel epigenetic regulator of myeloid derived suppressor cell expansion and function
- Divergent roles of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) and histone deacetylase 11 (HDAC11) on the transcriptional regulation of IL10 in antigen presenting cells
- A novel role for histone deacetylase 6 in the regulation of the tolerogenic STAT3/IL-10 pathway in APCs
- The antimelanoma activity of the histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (LBH589) is mediated by direct tumor cytotoxicity and increased tumor immunogenicity
Also on Google Scholar and the NCBI bibliography.