William Decker

Dr. William K. Decker is an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Pathology & Immunology and a member of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. His lab focuses on harnessing dendritic cells for cancer immunotherapy, aiming to overcome tumor immune evasion through mechanisms like CTLA-4 regulation and AIMp1-mediated Th1 polarization. The lab collaborates extensively within the Texas Medical Center consortium.

• Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine (2001)
• B.S. in Biochemistry, Tufts University (1994)

Research interests span:

• Dendritic cell vaccine development
• Immune checkpoint modulation
• Th1/Th17 polarization
• Tumor microenvironment reprogramming
• Extracellular vesicle signaling
• Translational oncology models

Publications highlight his lab's work on:

• CTLA-4 secretion via vesicles (2016-2020)
• AIMp1's role in Th1 immunity (2018)
• Homologous antigen loading strategies (2016-2020)
• CD161+ T cell therapy (2021)
• Canine cancer models (2017-2019)
• Preclinical PDAC/GBM studies (2016-2021)

Lab members include graduate students, post-bacs, MD fellows, and an assistant professor, with technical support from computational analyst Briana Burns. The Decker Lab operates in the Alkek Building (N920) Houston, TX.