Dan Hollern Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

About Dr. Hollern

Dr. Hollern is a Basic Science Researcher at the Salk Institute and holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences (RMAS) and Molecular Biology.  At the Salk Institute, he is a member of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Mocrobial Pathogenesis and holds the Frederick B. Rentschler Developmental Chair.

A dedicated researcher, he leads a lab focused on tumor–immune cell interactions, with particular emphasis on leveraging B cells as critical mediators of anti-tumor immunity. His team has shown, for the first time, that tumorinfiltrating B cells can predict and functionally influence patient responses to immune checkpoint therapies—recruiting other immune effectors and even directly secreting tumor-specific antibodies. Building on this, his lab investigates the molecular mechanisms underpinning B cell activation, including the roles of T follicular helper cells and interleukin21, to harness these pathways therapeutically and potentially enhance long-term immune control of cancer.

Dr. Hollern employs sophisticated computational immunology and multi-omics approaches—including single-cell RNA-seq and bulk transcriptomics—to map immune-tumor dynamics and develop robust preclinical models, especially in triple-negative breast cancer. His 2019 publication in Cell is a landmark: it identified how B cells and T follicular helper cells synergize to mediate responses to checkpoint inhibitors in high-mutation tumor models. These efforts aim to translate fundamental discoveries into actionable biomarkers and therapeutic strategies that harness B cell-driven immunity for durable cancer control.