Gabriel Abril Rodriguez, PhD Parker RISE Scholar Biography As a PhD student in the laboratory of Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, Gabriel Abril Rodriguez focused on PD-1 blockade therapy and characterized the transcriptome of melanoma patients treated with pembrolizumab, which led him to identify PAK4 as a novel target to improve checkpoint blockade therapy. These studies translated the findings into the first clinical trial combining a PAK4 inhibitor with anti-PD-1. As a researcher in the laboratory of Cristina Puig-Saus, PhD, Gabriel works to develop novel T-cell therapies for solid tumors. Building upon his prior focus on cancer cell-intrinsic mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy, Gabriel is now expanding his expertise in cancer immunotherapy by learning T-cell engineering and applying this knowledge to design novel and improved T cell-based immunotherapies. He is a 2022 Parker RISE Scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he works with a panel of neoepitope-specific TCR and matched cell lines to explore and investigate how T-cell responses can be pharmacologically improved in the fight against cancer. Education & Training 2021-present: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles 2021: University of California, Los Angeles, PhD, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology 2016: Visitor Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles 2016: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, MS, Oncology 2014: University of Barcelona, MS, Biomedicine 2013: University of Barcelona, BS, Biochemistry Awards & Honors 2022: Parker RISE Scholar 2020: Alan Ghitis Fellowship Award for Melanoma Research, Alan Ghitis Association 2019: Alan Ghitis Fellowship Award for Melanoma Research, Alan Ghitis Association 2018: Isabel & Harvey Kibel Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles 2018: Presidential Travel Award, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 2017: Isabel & Harvey Kibel Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles