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Mao Lab
Uppsala University
Dept. of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology · Uppsala University

Editing the immune system back into working order.

The Mao Lab investigates the mechanistic interplay between cancer cells and the immune system, with the ultimate goal to develop therapeutic combinations that achieve potent and tolerable anti-tumor immunity.

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01 — Research

Understanding the science behind immunotherapy failure

Immunotherapy has transformed the treatment of many cancers, but a large share of patients never respond — or stop responding. Our lab works to understand the negative immune regulatory network that lets tumors evade the therapy, and to test which of those regulators can be safely disabled.

We rely on CRISPR/Cas9-based screening to uncover resistance mechanisms directly in relevant immune and tumor cell populations, rather than inferring them from correlation alone. This has pointed us toward myeloid cells and epigenetic regulators as under-appreciated levers in the tumor microenvironment.

The Mao Lab focuses on the challenging unmet medical needs, such as tumors with acquired resistance to immunotherapy, rare cancer types and chemotherapy-relapsed patients, where immunotherapy has been less efficacious, and where new mechanistic insight can help make a difference for patients with limited treatment options.

01

Solid cancers

Here we aim to identify the 'Achilles' heel' in cancer cells to increase the response to immunotherapy.

02

Myeloid cells and malignancies

We try to find ways to restore their immune stimulatory capacity.

03

Research innovation

We continuous translate our research findings to early drug leads by combining our research expertise and the academic drug discovery infrastructure at SciLifeLab.

02 — People

Principal Investigator

Portrait of the PI

Yumeng Mao, PhD

Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Yumeng Mao was recruited to Uppsala University in 2019 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor within the prestigious SciLifeLab Fellow program and was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2023. Prior to this appointment, he spent several years in the Oncology R&D head quarters at AstraZeneca in Cambridge (UK), where he identified and led early drug discovery projects for novel cancer immunotherapy targets.

He began his research career in cancer immunology in 2009 with Dr. Karl-Erik Hellström at the University of Washington (USA), and subsequently trained as a PhD candidate at the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) under the supervision of Prof. Rolf Kiessling. He was born and raised in Xi'an (China), where he completed his undergraduate degree in Life Sciences. Now he lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children.

ORCID: 0000-0001-6142-6628
Scholar: Google Scholar profile
LinkedIn: yumeng-mao-2577ab17
03 — People

Group members

Vaishnavi S. Iyer, PhD
SSMF Post-doctoral Fellow
Vaish works on cancer-intrinsic pathways that differentially regulate PD1 and PD-L1 blockade. Her work is supported by a grant from SSMF.
Marta Rubies Bedos
PhD student
Marta focuses on the reversal of acquired immunotherapy resistance caused by the loss of JAK/STAT signaling.
Liam P. Alford
PhD student
Liam investigates on the role of myeloid cells in priming anti-tumor immunity and immune memory.
Rebeca T. Parracho
PhD student
Rebeca finds out ways to make high-risk childhood neuroblastoma sensitive to immunotherapy.
Marta Kourie
Industrial PhD student
Marta explores how to enable specific targeting of cancer cells using novel drug delivery systems, together with Strike Pharma.
Yonglin Lu
Bioinformatician
Yonglin specializes in analyzing large transcriptomics and spatial transcriptomics datasets and works on chemotherapy-relapsed breast cancer.
Marie Lulu Salein
Research assistant
Malu dissects the on- and off-target effect of neddylation inhibitors.
Eric Cruz Davila
Affiliated research assistant
Eric is jointly supervised by the Sjöblom Lab and bridges the mechanistic link between mutations and immunogenicity in colon cancer.
04 — Publications

Recent papers led by the lab

  • 2026

    Targeting cancer-intrinsic protein neddylation bypasses the loss of JAK/STAT signaling and overcomes acquired resistance to immunotherapy

    Rubies Bedos, Lu, Voutsinou, et al.

    Research Square (preprint)

    DOI
  • 2026

    Protein neddylation governs the inflammatory status of healthy and malignant myeloid cells in response to TLR stimulation

    Papakyriacou, Lu, Alford, Mao

    Research Square (preprint)

    DOI
  • 2026

    Cancer intrinsic protein neddylation modulates the intra-tumoral immune landscape to constrain immune checkpoint blockade therapy

    Papakyriacou, Lu, Jarvius, Lapins, Carreras-Puigvert, Mao, et al.

    Cancer Immunology Research

    DOIPubMed
  • 2024

    Loss of NEDD8 in cancer cells causes vulnerability to immune checkpoint blockade in triple-negative breast cancer

    Papakyriacou, Kutkaite, Rubies Bedos, Nagarajan, et al.

    Nature Communications

    DOIFull text (PDF)
  • 2024

    Epigenetic regulation of cell state by H2AFY governs immunogenicity in high-risk neuroblastoma

    Nagarajan, Parracho, Corujo, Xie, et al.

    Journal of Clinical Investigation

    DOIFull text (PDF)
  • 2023

    Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase-3 acts as an immune checkpoint in myeloid cells to limit cancer immunotherapy

    Tunali, Rubies Bedos, Nagarajan, Fridh, et al.

    Journal of Clinical Investigation

    DOIFull text (PDF)
  • 2021

    Editorial: NK-Myeloid Cell Interactions in the Tumor Microenvironment: Implications for Cancer Immunotherapy

    Wennerberg, Lundqvist, Mao, Mougiakakos

    Frontiers in Immunology

    DOIFull text (PDF)
  • 2020

    Human ovarian cancer intrinsic mechanisms regulate lymphocyte activation in response to immune checkpoint blockade

    Natoli, Bonito, Robinson, Ghaem-Maghami, Mao

    Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy

    DOIPMC

Full list maintained on Google Scholar.

05 — News

Lab updates

07 — People

Lab alumni

  • Irineos PapakyriacouPhD student · 2020-2026 · Then Postdoc at Mount Sinai, USA.
  • Eirini VoutsinouMaster student · 2024-2026 · Then PhD student at Uni. of Bern, Switzerland.
  • Pedro BaiaoMaster student · 2024 · Then PhD student at Radboudumc, The Netherlands.
  • Tyra ZetterlindBachelor student · 2024 · Then Medical student, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
  • Patrik FridhMaster student · 2022-2023 · Then PhD student at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
  • Divya NagaranjanPostdoc · 2020-2023 · Then Senior Scientist at Pencil Biosciences, UK.
  • Yuezhi ChenPostdoc · 2021-2022 · Then GI surgeon in China.
08 — Funders

Support & funding

SciLifeLab
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research
Swedish Research Council
Cancerfonden
Barncancerfonden
Novo Nordisk Foundation
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