Anthony Rongvaux

Anthony Rongvaux, PhD serves as Associate Professor in the Translational Science and Therapeutics Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and is a Member of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC). His research focuses on innate immune responses to cancer and infected cells using advanced humanized mouse models.

Education:

• PhD in Molecular Biology, Free University of Brussels (2006)
• BS in Molecular Biology, Free University of Brussels (1999)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University (2011)
• Associate Research Scientist, Yale University (2015)

Dr. Rongvaux investigates two primary research avenues: mitochondrial immunogenicity (how bacterial-origin power plants trigger autoimmune responses when tolerance fails) and macrophage dysfunction in tumor microenvironments (where immune cells paradoxically promote cancer metastasis). His lab develops genetically modified humanized mouse models to study innate immunity with human-relevant precision, enabling pre-clinical testing of novel immunotherapies. Recent work explores how stressed mitochondria silence inflammatory signals and macrophage-tumor interactions.

Scientific Recognition:

• Mentored Dr. Tijana Martinov, named 2019 Parker Scholar for immunotherapy research in multiple myeloma
• Recipient of institutional awards for immunotherapy and single-cell RNA sequencing research (2017)

Dr. Rongvaux leads the Rongvaux Lab, which actively researches pathogen sensing, human hematopoiesis, macrophage biology, and cell death immunity. His team emphasizes fundamental discovery to enable future clinical breakthroughs, operating under the philosophy that "fundamental research in immunology is the first step towards creating lifesaving advances."