Todd Schell, PhD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Todd Schell, PhD
Professor, Department of Cell and Biological Systems
Scientific Program:Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis
Disease Teams:
Cancer Institute, Immunotherapy Team
Clinical Trials
General Protocol for the Acquisition of Whole Blood for the Detection and Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells and/or Tumor Specific Immunity/Immune Cell Activation for any Malignancy at any Stage of Disease
A Retrospective Evaluation to Understand how â-adrenergic Antagonism Impacts the Progression of Melanoma and the Efficacy of Standard Treatments Intended to Eliminate the Cancer
Recent Publications
2025
El-Bayoumy, K, Christensen, N, Broach, J, Meyers, C, Stairs, D, Machtay, M, Hu, J, Bitzer, ZT, Schell, TD, Chen, K-M, Sun, Y-W, Desai, D, Walter, V & Zhu, J 2025, 'Current challenges and potential opportunities for interception and prevention of head and neck cancer', Carcinogenesis, vol. 46, no. 2, bgaf025. https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgaf025
Zhao, C, Jia, B, Jiang, Y, Shike, H, Annageldiyev, C, Cioccio, J, Minagawa, K, Mineishi, S, Ehmann, WC, Schell, TD, Cheng, H & Zheng, H 2025, 'Cytotoxic lymphocytes induced by engineered human dendritic cells mediate potent anti-leukemia activity', Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, vol. 74, no. 4, 117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-025-03971-y
Chen, YC, Bazewicz, CG, Dinavahi, SS, Huntington, ND, Schell, TD & Robertson, G 2025, 'Emerging Role of the p53 Pathway in Modulating NK Cell–Mediated Immunity', Molecular cancer therapeutics, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 523-535. https://doi.org/10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-24-0325
Dhamdhere, MR, Gowda, CP, Imamura, Y, Wang, HG, Schell, TS & Spiegelman, VS 2025, 'IGF2BP1 fosters an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in high-risk neuroblastoma, contributing to their resistance to immunotherapy', OncoImmunology, vol. 14, no. 1, 2584408. https://doi.org/10.1080/2162402X.2025.2584408
Bollu, VS, Chen, YC, Zhang, F, Gowda, K, Amin, S, Sharma, AK, Schell, TD, Zhu, J & Robertson, GP 2025, 'Managing telomerase and telomere dysfunction in acral melanoma', Pharmacological Research, vol. 215, 107700. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2025.107700
Schell, TD, Bitzer, ZT, Chen, KM, Aliaga, C, Sun, YW, Desai, D, Lanza, M, Hu, J, Christensen, N & El-Bayoumy, K 2025, 'The effects of Co-exposure of tobacco smoke with Dibenzo[a,l]pyrene diol epoxide on molecular targets and immune cells in the mouse oral cavity', Chemico-Biological Interactions, vol. 420, 111694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2025.111694
2024
Strong, AL, Karelia, DN, Schell, TD, Hershock, D, Fan, T, Sun, D, Zhu, J, Proctor, EA, Jiang, C, Joshi, M & Lu, J 2024, 'A double-blinded, placebo-controlled, cross-over pilot trial in healthy men to study the effects of Angelica gigas herbal supplement on prostate cancer–relevant inflammatory cytokines.', Journal of Clinical Oncology, vol. 42, pp. 170. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2024.42.4_suppl.170
Gowda, K, Raza, A, Vangala, V, Lone, NA, Lin, JM, Singh, JK, Srivastava, SK, Schell, TD, Robertson, GP, Amin, S & Sharma, AK 2024, 'Identification of Novel Isatin Derivative Bearing a Nitrofuran Moiety as Potent Multi-Isoform Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Inhibitor', Molecules, vol. 29, no. 13, 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29133114
Chen, J, Hnath, B, Sha, CM, Beidler, L, Schell, TD & Dokholyan, NV 2024, 'Optogenetically engineered Septin-7 enhances immune cell infiltration of tumor spheroids', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 121, no. 44, e2405717121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2405717121
Chen, YC, Gowda, K, Amin, S, Schell, TD, Sharma, AK & Robertson, GP 2024, 'Pharmacological agents targeting drug-tolerant persister cells in cancer', Pharmacological Research, vol. 203, 107163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2024.107163
Demirsoy, S, Tran, H, Liu, J, Li, Y, Yang, S, Aregawi, D, Glantz, MJ, Jacob, NK, Walter, V, Schell, TD & Olmez, I 2024, 'Targeting Tyro3, Axl, and MerTK Receptor Tyrosine Kinases Significantly Sensitizes Triple-Negative Breast Cancer to CDK4/6 Inhibition', Cancers, vol. 16, no. 12, 2253. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16122253
Vangala, V, Chen, YC, Dinavahi, SS, Gowda, K, Lone, NA, Herlyn, M, Drabick, J, Helm, K, Zhu, J, Neves, RI, Sharma, AK, Berg, A, Archetti, M, Amin, S, Schell, TD & Robertson, GP 2024, 'Tumor Heterogeneity Shapes Survival Dynamics in Drug-Treated Cells, Revealing Size-Drifting Subpopulations', ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science, vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 3573-3584. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.4c00453
2023
Jia, B, Zhao, C, Minagawa, K, Shike, H, Claxton, DF, Ehmann, WC, Rybka, WB, Mineishi, S, Wang, M, Schell, TD, Prabhu, KS, Paulson, RF, Zhang, Y, Shultz, LD & Zheng, H 2023, 'Acute Myeloid Leukemia Causes T Cell Exhaustion and Depletion in a Humanized Graft-versus-Leukemia Model', Journal of Immunology, vol. 211, no. 9, pp. 1426-1437. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.2300111
Manni, A, Sun, YW, Schell, TD, Lutsiv, T, Thompson, H, Chen, KM, Aliaga, C, Zhu, J & El-Bayoumy, K 2023, 'Complementarity between Microbiome and Immunity May Account for the Potentiating Effect of Quercetin on the Antitumor Action of Cyclophosphamide in a Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Model', Pharmaceuticals, vol. 16, no. 10, 1422. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph16101422
Joshi, M, Tuanquin, L, Zhu, J, Walter, V, Schell, T, Kaag, M, Kilari, D, Liao, J, Holder, SL, Emamekhoo, H, Sankin, A, Merrill, S, Zheng, H, Warrick, J, Hauke, R, Gartrel, B, Stein, M, Drabick, J, Degraff, DJ & Zakharia, Y 2023, 'Concurrent durvalumab and radiation therapy (DUART) followed by adjuvant durvalumab in patients with localized urothelial cancer of bladder: Results from phase II study, BTCRC-GU15-023', Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, vol. 11, no. 2, e006551. https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2022-006551
Elcheva, IA, Gowda, CP, Bogush, D, Gornostaeva, S, Fakhardo, A, Sheth, N, Kokolus, KM, Sharma, A, Dovat, S, Uzun, Y, Schell, TD & Spiegelman, VS 2023, 'IGF2BP family of RNA-binding proteins regulate innate and adaptive immune responses in cancer cells and tumor microenvironment', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 14, 1224516. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1224516
Brendle, SA, Li, JJ, Walter, V, Schell, T, Kozak, M, Balogh, KK, Lu, S, Christensen, ND, Zhu, Y, El-Bayoumy, K & Hu, J 2023, 'Immune Responses in Oral Papillomavirus Clearance in the MmuPV1 Mouse Model', Pathogens, vol. 12, no. 12, 1452. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12121452
Yeware, A, Helton, A, Dong, Y, Dong, C, Pritchard, J, Mineishi, S, Minagawa, K, Schell, T & Hayes, D 2023, 'Novel fourth generation-like CARmiR cells release therapeutic miRNA via exosomes and enhance glioblastoma cell killing activity', Biochemical Engineering Journal, vol. 199, 109068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bej.2023.109068
Pandya Shesh, B, Walter, V, Palsa, K, Slagle-Webb, B, Neely, E, Schell, T & Connor, JR 2023, 'Sexually dimorphic effect of H-ferritin genetic manipulation on survival and tumor microenvironment in a mouse model of glioblastoma', Journal of neuro-oncology, vol. 164, no. 3, pp. 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-023-04415-2
2022
Lü, J, Jiang, C, Schell, TD, Joshi, M, Raman, JD & Xing, C 2022, 'Angelica gigas: Signature Compounds, In Vivo Anticancer, Analgesic, Neuroprotective and Other Activities, and the Clinical Translation Challenges', American Journal of Chinese Medicine, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1475-1527. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X2250063X
Dhanyamraju, PK, Schell, TD, Amin, S & Robertson, GP 2022, 'Drug-Tolerant Persister Cells in Cancer Therapy Resistance', Cancer Research, vol. 82, no. 14, pp. 2503-2514. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-21-3844
Zhang, R, Neighbors, JD, Schell, TD & Hohl, RJ 2022, 'Schweinfurthin induces ICD without ER stress and caspase activation', OncoImmunology, vol. 11, no. 1, 2104551. https://doi.org/10.1080/2162402X.2022.2104551
Liu, X, Wills, CA, Chen, L, Zhang, J, Zhao, Y, Zhou, M, Sundstrom, JM, Schell, T, Spiegelman, VS, Young, MM & Wang, HG 2022, 'Small extracellular vesicles induce resistance to anti-GD2 immunotherapy unveiling tipifarnib as an adjunct to neuroblastoma immunotherapy', Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, vol. 10, no. 4, e004399. https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2021-004399