Hammer Laboratory
Hammer Laboratory
Lauren Koch

Lauren Koch

I am a PhD candidate through the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology here at Michigan. I switched into the Hammer lab in Fall 2020 to continue my PhD training. My research interests lie where evolutionary and developmental biology, genetics, and regeneration and disease intersect.

Research in the Hammer lab has contributed greatly to the molecular understanding of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), an aggressive cancer with poor prognosis and grim outcomes following current standard therapeutic treatments. My project focuses on elucidating the signaling mechanisms between ACC tumor cells and T cells of the immune system, and how intra-tumoral steroid production in ACC may be harnessed to evade immune infiltration. The findings of this project may inform novel immunotherapy treatments to improve the outcome for ACC patients.