The major goal of the Guerriero lab is to accelerate breast cancer immunotherapy by harnessing tumor associated macrophages. To date, immunotherapy has largely focused on recruiting and activating anti-tumor T cells, which has shown tremendous responses in some types of cancers, but we know that not all patients and not all cancer types benefit from T cell targeted approaches. Macrophages are highly prevalent in solid tumors and function to promote cancer cell survival and proliferation and can also inhibit anti-tumor T cells responses. Therefore, the Guerriero Lab aims to target macrophages to design clinically effective strategies to promote T cell activation and weaken the immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment to improve immunotherapy response rates in breast cancer patients. The lab is particularly interested in identifying tumor-promoting tumor macrophages in breast tumors before and after therapy, elucidating their molecular and metabolic regulation that promotes immune suppression and therapy-resistance and determining how tumor macrophage phenotype, diversity, metabolism and function can be modulated for anti-tumor responses. The lab is working to perform in-depth analysis of animal models and patient samples to efficiently guide rational use and development of immunotherapy modalities for the treatment of breast cancer.