Annelise Snyder , PhD

I am originally from Ashby, MA and received BA degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Williams College. I then worked as a research technician at the University of Pennsylvania before moving to the west coast to pursue my PhD in Immunology at the University of Washington. After finishing my PhD in 2019, I did my postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. I am excited to open my research lab and start teaching at Western in January 2024.

I love immunology because many different parts of the immune system play roles in a wide variety of human diseases. I have a long-standing interest in studying how the immune system interacts with tumor cells, and how we can use that information to design new therapies to treat cancer. I am also committed to outreach, teaching, and mentorship, which I see as key avenues to introduce students from different backgrounds to an interesting field of study and potential career paths. 

In my spare time I enjoy exploring the outdoors with my dog, electronic music, trying to keep the plants in my garden alive, and responding to emails asking for information that's provided in my course syllabi. 

The immune system is responsible for surveying tissues for signs of infection, injury, or cancer, then deploying immune responses that remove compromised cells and restore tissue homeostasis. In the context of cancer, this process is often referred as immunosurveillance. However, immunosurveillance is not conducted with 100% efficiency, as cancer cells have evolved numerous strategies to evade immune targeting and promote tumor survival.

Our lab studies how a phagocytic innate immune cell called a macrophage interacts with tumor cells during brain metastasis in breast cancer. Our goal is to characterize cellular mechanisms that control macrophage function to help explain why macrophage immunosurveillance is inhibited during brain metastasis. To do this, we use a variety of cellular, molecular, and computational tools to analyze macrophages and tumor cells from both mice and humans.

As a professor, I aim to provide comprehensive mentorship to students. This includes developing conceptual and technical expertise related to immunology and cancer biology, in addition to teaching written and verbal communication skills. My goal is that this training environment will prepare students for careers in biomedical research, biotechnology industries, and medicine.

We will wait until Winter 2025 to accept additional undergraduate research assistants. I will not be accepting MS students for 2024. If you are an undergraduate interested in joining our group, please email me with (1) a cover letter describing your specific interest in our work; (2) a copy of your CV; (3) contact information for 2 references.

Education

2019: Ph.D. (Immunology), University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

2011: B.A. (Biology, Chemistry), Williams College (Williamstown, MA)

Professional Experience

2024-Present: Assistant professor, Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA)

2021-2023: Postdoctoral fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Seattle, WA)

2019-2021: Postdoctoral fellow, Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, CA)

2013-2014: Graduate research assistant, Northeastern University (Boston, MA)

2011-2013: Research technician, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

2020-2021: Tang Prize Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

2017-2019: National Institutes of Health Predoctoral National Research Service Award (NIH NRSA F32)

2013-2017: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP)

1. Goddard ET, Linde MH, Srivastava S, Klug G, Shabaneh TB, Iannone S, Grzelak CA, Marsh S, Riggio AI, Shorr RE, Guerrero M, Veatch JR, Snyder AG, Welm AL, Riddell SR, Ghajar CM. Immune evasion of dormant disseminated tumor cells is due to their scarcity and can be overcome by T cell immunotherapies. Cancer Cell. 2024 Jan 8;42(1):119-134.e12. PMID: 38194912.
2. Snyder AG, Oberst A. The antisocial network: Cross talk between cell death programs in host defense. Annu Rev Immunol. 2021 Apr 26;39:77-101. PMCID: PMC8594462.
3. Orozco SL, Daniels BP, Yatim N, Messmer MN, Quarto G, Chen-Harris H, Cullen SP, Snyder AG, Ralli-Jain P, Frase S, Tait SWG, Green DR, Albert ML, Oberst A. RIPK3 activation leads to cytokine synthesis that continues after loss of cell membrane integrity. Cell Rep. 2019 Aug 27;28(9):2275-2287.e5. PMCID: PMC6857709.
4. Snyder AG, Hubbard NW, Messmer MN, Kofman SB, Hagan CE, Orozco SL, Chiang K, Daniels BP, Baker D, Oberst A. Intratumoral activation of the necroptotic pathway components RIPK1 and RIPK3 potentiates anti tumor immunity. Sci Immunol. 2019 Jun 21;4(36) PMCID: PMC6831211.
5. Messmer MN*, Snyder AG*, Oberst A. Comparing the effects of different cell death programs in tumor progression and immunotherapy. Cell Death Differ. 2019 Jan;26(1):115-129. PMCID: PMC6294769.
6. Daniels BP, Kofman SB, Smith JR, Norris GT, Snyder AG, Kolb JP, Gao X, Locasale JW, Martinez J, Gale M Jr, Loo YM, Oberst A. The nucleotide sensor ZBP1 and kinase RIPK3 induce the enzyme IRG1 to promote an antiviral metabolic state in neurons. Immunity. 2019 Jan 15;50(1):64-76.e4. PMCID: PMC6342485.
7. Daniels BP, Snyder AG, Olsen TM, Orozco S, Aguin TH 3rd, Tait SWG, Martinez J, Gale M Jr, Loo YM, Oberst A. RIPK3 restricts viral pathogenesis via cell death-independent neuroinflammation. Cell. 2017 Apr 6;169(2):301-313.e11. PMCID: PMC5405738.
8. Zwack EE, Snyder AG, Wynosky-Dolfi MA, Ruthel G, Philip NH, Marketon MM, Frances MS, Bliska JB, Brodsky IE. Inflammasome activation in response to the Yersinia type III secretion system requires hyperinjection of translocon proteins YopB and YopD. mBio. 2015 Feb 17;6(1):e02095-14. PMCID: PMC4337566.
9. Philip NH, Dillon CP, Snyder AG, Fitzgerald P, Wynosky-Dolfi MA, Zwack EE, Hu B, Fitzgerald L, Mauldin EA, Copenhaver AM, Shin S, Wei L, Parker M, Zhang J, Oberst A, Green DR, Brodsky IE. Caspase-8 mediates caspase-1 processing and innate immune defense in response to bacterial blockade of NF-kB and MAPK signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 May 20;111(20):7385-90. PMCID: PMC4034241.
10. Wynosky-Dolfi MA, Snyder AG, Philip NH, Doonan PJ, Poffenberger MC, Avizonis D, Zwack EE, Riblett AM, Hu B, Strowig T, Flavell RA, Jones RG, Freedman BD, Brodsky IE. Oxidative metabolism enables Salmonella evasion of the NLRP3 inflammasome. J Exp Med. 2014 Apr 7;211(4):653-68. PMCID: PMC3978275.
11. Alenghat T, Osborne LC, Saenz SA, Kobuley D, Ziegler CG, Mullican SE, Choi I, Grunberg S, Sinha R, Wynosky-Dolfi M, Snyder A, Giacomin PR, Joyce KL, Hoang TB, Bewtra M, Brodsky IE, Sonnenberg GF, Bushman FD, Won KJ, Lazar MA, Artis D. Histone deactylase 3 coordinates commensal bacteria-dependent intestinal homeostasis. Nature. 2013 Dec 5;504(7478):153-7. PMCID: PMC3949438.

* Equal contribution authorship