Education:
University of South Florida
Cell and Molecular Biology major, Psychology minor
B.S., 2015
University of Minnesota
Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Graduate Program
Ph.D., 2025
MSTP Student Governance:
- Student Advisory Committee 2019-2020, 2024-2026
- Student Admissions and Recruitment Committee, 2022-2023
Honors & Awards:
- Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Predoctoral MD/PhD Fellows, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 2024 - 2027
Thesis advisor: David Masopust, Ph.D.
Thesis Research
Tissue-resident CD8 T cell memory.
Publications
Ghirardelli Smith OC, Dao TT, Gavil NV, O'Flanagan SD, Rubin AJ, Nguyen S, Watowich MB, Liu N, Weyu E, Quarnstrom CF, Soerens AG, Joag V, Rosato PC, Krummel MF, Geller MA, Miller JS, Giubellino A, Vezys V, Shalek AK, Masopust D. Intratumoral T cell activation kills tumors regardless of T cell specificity. Nat Immunol. 2026 Sep 8. doi: 10.1038/s41590-026-02642-z.
Ghirardelli Smith OC, Tsai AK, Zhong M, Dejban P, Nelson AC, Dolan M, Antonarakis ES, Murugan P. Case Report: Prepubertal-type testicular teratoma with local metastasis in a postpubertal patient. Front Oncol. 2025 Feb 25;15:1547258. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1547258. PMCID: PMC11893418
Scott MC, Steier Z, Pierson MJ, Stolley JM, O'Flanagan SD, Soerens AG, Wijeyesinghe SP, Beura LK, Dileepan G, Burbach BJ, Künzli M, Quarnstrom CF, Ghirardelli Smith OC, Weyu E, Hamilton SE, Vezys V, Shalek AK, Masopust D. Deep profiling deconstructs features associated with memory CD8+ T cell tissue residence. Immunity. 2025 Jan 14;58(1):162-181.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2024.11.007. PMCID: PMC11852946
Gavil NV, Scott MC, Weyu E, Smith OC, O'Flanagan SD, Wijeyesinghe S, Lotfi-Emran S, Shiao SL, Vezys V, Masopust D. Chronic antigen in solid tumors drives a distinct program of T cell residence. Sci Immunol. 2023 Jun 8;8(84):eadd5976. PMCID: PMC10569081
Work prior to the UMN MSTP:
Westcott PMK, Sacks NJ, Schenkel JM, Ely ZA, Smith O, Hauck H, Jaeger AM, Zhang D, Backlund CM, Beytagh MC, Patten JJ, Elbashir R, Eng G, Irvine JD, Yilmaz OH, Jacks T. Low neoantigen expression and poor T-cell priming underlie early immune escape in colorectal cancer. Nat Cancer (2021). 30 Sept, 2021. Online ahead of print.
Schenkel JM, Herbst RH, Canner D, Li A, Hillman M, Shanahan S, Gibbons G, Smith OC, Kim JY, Westcott P, Hwang WL, Freed-Pastor WA, Eng G, Cuoco MS, Rogers P, Park JK, Burger ME, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Cong L, Pauken KE, Regev A, Jacks T. Conventional type I dendric cells maintain a reservoir of proliferative tumor-antigen specific TCF-1+ CD8+ T cells in tumor-draining lymph nodes. Immunity. 2021 Sep 8:S1074-7613(21)00360-5. Online ahead of print.
Marjanovic N*, Hofree M*, Chan J*, Canner D, Wu K, Trakala M, Hartmann G, Smith O, Kim J, Pitter K, Hudson A, Rekhtman N, Massion P, Poirier J, Amon A, Rudin C, Jacks T†, Regev A†, Tammela T†. Emergence of a high-plasticity cell state during lung cancer evolution. (*† Authors contributed equally) Cancer Cell. 2020 Jul 23;S1535-6108(20)30316-0. PMCID: PMC7745838
Maynard LH, Smith O, Tilmans NP, Tham E, Hosseinzadeh S, Tan W, Leenay R, May AP, Paulk NK. Fast-Seq: A Simple Method for Rapid and Inexpensive Validation of Packaged Single-Stranded Adeno-Associated Viral Genomes in Academic Settings. Hum Gene Ther Methods. 2019 Dec;30(6):195-205. PMCID: PMC6919253
Durham ND, Agrawal A, Waltari E, Croote D, Zanini F, Fouch M, Davidson E, Smith O, Carabajal E, Pak JE, Doranz BJ, Robinson M, Sanz AM, Albornoz LL, Rosso F, Einav S, Quake SR, McCutcheon KM, Goo L. Broadly neutralizing human antibodies against dengue virus identified by single B cell transcriptomics. Elife. 2019 Dec 10;8. pii: e52384. PMCID: PMC6927745
Li A, Herbst RH, Canner D, Schenkel JM, Smith OC, Kim JY, Hillman M, Bhutkar A, Cuoco MS, Rappazzo CG, Rogers P, Dang C, Jerby-Arnon L, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Cong L, Birnbaum M, Regev A, Jacks T. IL-33 Signaling Alters Regulatory T Cell Diversity in Support of Tumor Development. Cell Rep. 2019 Dec 3;29(10):2998-3008.e8.
