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Mikala Egeblad

Mikala Egeblad, PhD

Highlights

Languages

  • English

Gender

Female

Johns Hopkins Affiliations:

  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

About Mikala Egeblad

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Cell Biology

Background

Mikala Egeblad is an internationally-recognized cancer researcher who joined Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2023 from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She studies how the tumor microenvironment—the immune cells, blood vessels, chemical signals, and support matrix surrounding a tumor—regulates cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis. A current line of research involves learning more about how the brain regulates the immune system to combat cancer. Dr. Egeblad serves as associate director of the Giovanis Institute for Translational Cell Biology, co-leader of the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Cancer Invasion and Metastasis Program, and is part of the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Convergence Institute. She was most recently elected to the AACR Board of Directors for the 2025 – 2028 term. She joins an esteemed group of colleagues in service to AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research. Her ultimate goal is to help cancer patients mitigate their risk of recurrence and metastasis, and her work holds promise for potential future treatment options.

Centers and Institutes

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

Mikala Egeblad wants to put the brakes on cancer progression, The Hub (June 27, 2023)

Untangling a Nest of Neutrophils, Fundamentals (November 13, 2025)

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Oncology

Research Interests

Breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, metastasis, tumor microenvironment, innate tumor immunology, neutrophils, macrophages

Google Scholar - Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bCSJunYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

PubMed - Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1d5gXXP8wcCA7/bibliography/public/

Selected Publications

  1. Adrover, JA, Han X, Sun L, Fujii T, Sivetz N, Daßler-Plenker J, Evans C, Peters J, He X-Y, Cannon CD, Ho WJ, Raptis G, Powers RS, and Egeblad M. Neutrophils drive vascular occlusion, tumor necrosis, and metastasis. Nature 2025; doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09278-3
  2. He XY, Gao Y, Ng D, Michalopoulou E, George S, Adrover JM, Sun L, Albrengues J, Daßler-Plenker J, Han X, Wan L, Wu XS, Shui LS, Huang YH, Liu B, Su C, Spector DL, Vakoc CR, Van Aelst L, Egeblad M. Chronic stress increases metastasis via neutrophil-mediated changes to the microenvironment. Cancer Cell. 2024; 42(3):474-486.e12. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11300849.
  3. Hirschhorn D, Budhu S, Kraehenbuehl L, Gigoux M, Schröder D, Chow A, Ricca JM, Gasmi B, De Henau O, Mangarin LMB, Li Y, Hamadene L, Flamar AL, Choi H, Cortez CA, Liu C, Holland A, Schad S, Schulze I, Betof Warner A, Hollmann TJ, Arora A, Panageas KS, Rizzuto GA, Duhen R, Weinberg AD, Spencer CN, Ng D, He XY, Albrengues J, Redmond D, Egeblad M, Wolchok JD, Merghoub T. T cell immunotherapies engage neutrophils to eliminate tumor antigen escape variants. Cell. 2023; 186(7):1432-1447.e17. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10994488.
  4. Sun L, Kees T, Almeida AS, Liu B, He XY, Ng D, Han X, Spector DL, McNeish IA, Gimotty P, Adams S, Egeblad M. Activating a collaborative innate-adaptive immune response to control metastasis. Cancer Cell. 2021; 39(10):1361-1374.e9. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8981964.
  5. Albrengues J, Shields MA, Ng D, Park CG, Ambrico A, Poindexter ME, Upadhyay P, Uyeminami DL, Pommier A, Küttner V, Bružas E, Maiorino L, Bautista C, Carmona EM, Gimotty PA, Fearon DT, Chang K, Lyons SK, Pinkerton KE, Trotman LC, Goldberg MS, Yeh JT, Egeblad M. Neutrophil extracellular traps produced during inflammation awaken dormant cancer cells in mice. Science. 2018, 361(6409) PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6777850.
  6. Park J, Wysocki RW, Amoozgar Z, Maiorino L, Fein MR, Jorns J, Schott AF, Kinugasa-Katayama Y, Lee Y, Won NH, Nakasone ES, Hearn SA, Küttner V, Qiu J, Almeida AS, Perurena N, Kessenbrock K, Goldberg MS, Egeblad M. Cancer cells induce metastasis-supporting neutrophil extracellular DNA traps. Sci Transl Med. 2016 Oct 19;8(361):361ra138. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5550900.
  7. Egeblad M, Ewald AJ, Askautrud HA, Truitt ML, Welm BE, Bainbridge E, Peeters G, Krummel MF, Werb Z. Visualizing stromal cell dynamics in different tumor microenvironments by spinning disk confocal microscopy. Dis Model Mech. 2008; 1(2-3):155-67; discussion 165. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2562195.
  8. Egeblad M, Werb Z. New functions for the matrix metalloproteinases in cancer progression. Nat Rev Cancer. 2002 Mar;2(3):161-74. PubMed PMID: 11990853.

Honors

  • Member Board of Directors, American Association for Cancer Research, 2025-2028
  • I.J “Josh” Fidler Innovation Award, The Metastasis Research Society, 2024
  • The Winship Herr Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), 2019
  • The Suffrage Science Award, MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, 2018
  • The Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, Pershing Square, 2017
  • Era of Hope Scholar Award, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Breast Cancer research Program, 2014
  • Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Career Development Award, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), 2012
  • Career Catalyst Grant, Susan G. Komen Foundation, 2010

Graduate Program Affiliations

Expertise

Education

  • University of Copenhagen, Ph.D., 2000