Duke University
Durham, United States
Kristen Anne Batich, MD, PhD is a Fellow in Neuro-Oncology and Medical Oncology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Batich holds interests in advancing antibody and cellular-based immunotherapies for the treatment of brain tumors as well as understanding the mechanisms behind immune cell trafficking that govern anti-tumor immune responses in the context of steady state and cancer-burdened conditions. The scope of her PhD work initially stemmed from a Duke clinical trial suggesting that dendritic cell (DC) vaccine therapy for glioblastoma could be enhanced with pretreatment of the DC vaccination site. After these results were published in Nature, Dr. Batich spearheaded the design, IRB approval, implementation, and now analysis of a double-blinded randomized clinical trial (ELEVATE; NCT02366728) that was constructed as a validation trial of the initial study. She is also a key investigator on a Phase II study using dose-dense temozolomide chemotherapy with DC vaccination and their vaccine site preconditioning scheme (I-ATTAC; NCT03927222). Dr. Batich is passionate about further understanding the endogenous immune-oncologic interactions in central nervous system malignancies since beginning her research career. She strives to bring her patients a translational immune-oncology platform that implements bench-to-bedside (and in her experience, bedside-to-bench, and back to bedside) therapies via clinical trials.