University of California San Francisco

Karin Pelka, PhD
Karin Pelka, PhD

Assistant Investigator, Gladstone Institutes
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
School of Medicine

Education

Institution Degree Dept or School End Date
UCSF School of Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training (DEI) 2022
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Postdoc Tumor Immunology and Systems Biology 2021
University of Bonn PhD Innate Immunity 2016
University of Bonn Diploma Molecular Biomedicine 2010
Leibniz Kolleg Interdisciplinary Studies 2005

Awards & Honors

Award Conferred By Date
NIH Pathway to Independence Award K99/R00 National Cancer Institute 2021/2024
Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collaboration Award Stand Up To Cancer 2020/2022
BroadIgnite Award supporting bold ideas of early-career scientists Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard 2019/2021
Peggy Prescott Early Career Scientist Award in Colorectal Cancer Research Stand Up To Cancer 2019/2021
Research Fellowship German Research Foundation 2018/2020
PhD ‘summa cum laude’ University of Bonn 2016/2016
Scholar German Academic Scholarship Foundation 2005/2010

Grants and Funding

  • Malignant Cell Engagement in Immune Circuits of Human Microsatellite-stable and Microsatellite-instable Colorectal Cancer | NIH | 2021-04-08 - 2024-08-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
  • Can scRNAseq-derived gene programs predict anti-PD-1 response in high TMB CRC and NSCLC patients? | | 2020-07-01 - 2022-06-30 | Role: Principal Investigator
  • Exploiting myeloid cells to gain immune control of human colorectal cancer | SU2C Peggy Prescott Early Career Scientist Award | 2019-06-01 - 2021-11-30 | Role: Principal Investigator
  • Malignant Cell Engagement in Immune Circuits of Human Microsatellite-stable and Microsatellite-instable Colorectal Cancer | NIH | 2021-04-01 - 2021-08-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
  • | BroadIgnite Award | 2019-04-01 - 2021-03-31 | Role: Principal Investigator
  • Studying the co-evolution of malignant cells and anti-tumor immunity | German Research Foundation (DFG) | 2018-04-01 - 2020-03-31 | Role: Principal Investigator

Publications

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 33
  1. Listening in on Multicellular Communication in Human Tissue Immunology.
    Albers JJ, Pelka K| | PubMed
  2. Differential pre-malignant programs and microenvironment chart distinct paths to malignancy in human colorectal polyps.
    Chen B, Scurrah CR, McKinley ET, Simmons AJ, Ramirez-Solano MA, Zhu X, Markham NO, Heiser CN, Vega PN, Rolong A, Kim H, Sheng Q, Drewes JL, Zhou Y, Southard-Smith AN, Xu Y, Ro J, Jones AL, Revetta F, Berry LD, Niitsu H, Islam M, Pelka K, Hofree M, Chen JH, Sarkizova S, Ng K, Giannakis M, Boland GM, Aguirre AJ, Anderson AC, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Regev A, Hacohen N, Kawasaki K, Sato T, Goettel JA, Grady WM, Zheng W, Washington MK, Cai Q, Sears CL, Goldenring JR, Franklin JL, Su T, Huh WJ, Vandekar S, Roland JT, Liu Q, Coffey RJ, Shrubsole MJ, Lau KS| | PubMed
  3. Spatially organized multicellular immune hubs in human colorectal cancer.
    Pelka K, Hofree M, Chen JH, Sarkizova S, Pirl JD, Jorgji V, Bejnood A, Dionne D, Ge WH, Xu KH, Chao SX, Zollinger DR, Lieb DJ, Reeves JW, Fuhrman CA, Hoang ML, Delorey T, Nguyen LT, Waldman J, Klapholz M, Wakiro I, Cohen O, Albers J, Smillie CS, Cuoco MS, Wu J, Su MJ, Yeung J, Vijaykumar B, Magnuson AM, Asinovski N, Moll T, Goder-Reiser MN, Applebaum AS, Brais LK, DelloStritto LK, Denning SL, Phillips ST, Hill EK, Meehan JK, Frederick DT, Sharova T, Kanodia A, Todres EZ, Jané-Valbuena J, Biton M, Izar B, Lambden CD, Clancy TE, Bleday R, Melnitchouk N, Irani J, Kunitake H, Berger DL, Srivastava A, Hornick JL, Ogino S, Rotem A, Vigneau S, Johnson BE, Corcoran RB, Sharpe AH, Kuchroo VK, Ng K, Giannakis M, Nieman LT, Boland GM, Aguirre AJ, Anderson AC, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Regev A, Hacohen N| | PubMed
  4. Longitudinal proteomic analysis of severe COVID-19 reveals survival-associated signatures, tissue-specific cell death, and cell-cell interactions.
    Filbin MR, Mehta A, Schneider AM, Kays KR, Guess JR, Gentili M, Fenyves BG, Charland NC, Gonye ALK, Gushterova I, Khanna HK, LaSalle TJ, Lavin-Parsons KM, Lilley BM, Lodenstein CL, Manakongtreecheep K, Margolin JD, McKaig BN, Rojas-Lopez M, Russo BC, Sharma N, Tantivit J, Thomas MF, Gerszten RE, Heimberg GS, Hoover PJ, Lieb DJ, Lin B, Ngo D, Pelka K, Reyes M, Smillie CS, Waghray A, Wood TE, Zajac AS, Jennings LL, Grundberg I, Bhattacharyya RP, Parry BA, Villani AC, Sade-Feldman M, Hacohen N, Goldberg MB| | PubMed
  5. Interaction of TLR4 and TLR8 in the Innate Immune Response against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
    Thada S, Horvath GL, Müller MM, Dittrich N, Conrad ML, Sur S, Hussain A, Pelka K, Gaddam SL, Latz E, Slevogt H, Schumann RR, Burkert S| | PubMed
  6. Plasma proteomics reveals tissue-specific cell death and mediators of cell-cell interactions in severe COVID-19 patients.
    Filbin MR, Mehta A, Schneider AM, Kays KR, Guess JR, Gentili M, Fenyves BG, Charland NC, Gonye ALK, Gushterova I, Khanna HK, LaSalle TJ, Lavin-Parsons KM, Lilly BM, Lodenstein CL, Manakongtreecheep K, Margolin JD, McKaig BN, Rojas-Lopez M, Russo BC, Sharma N, Tantivit J, Thomas MF, Gerszten RE, Heimberg GS, Hoover PJ, Lieb DJ, Lin B, Ngo D, Pelka K, Reyes M, Smillie CS, Waghray A, Wood TE, Zajac AS, Jennings LL, Grundberg I, Bhattacharyya RP, Parry BA, Villani AC, Sade-Feldman M, Hacohen N, Goldberg MB| | PubMed
  7. Large-Scale Topological Changes Restrain Malignant Progression in Colorectal Cancer.
    Johnstone SE, Reyes A, Qi Y, Adriaens C, Hegazi E, Pelka K, Chen JH, Zou LS, Drier Y, Hecht V, Shoresh N, Selig MK, Lareau CA, Iyer S, Nguyen SC, Joyce EF, Hacohen N, Irizarry RA, Zhang B, Aryee MJ, Bernstein BE| | PubMed
  8. Massively parallel single-cell mitochondrial DNA genotyping and chromatin profiling.
    Lareau CA, Ludwig LS, Muus C, Gohil SH, Zhao T, Chiang Z, Pelka K, Verboon JM, Luo W, Christian E, Rosebrock D, Getz G, Boland GM, Chen F, Buenrostro JD, Hacohen N, Wu CJ, Aryee MJ, Regev A, Sankaran VG| | PubMed
  9. Lineage Tracing in Humans Enabled by Mitochondrial Mutations and Single-Cell Genomics.
    Ludwig LS, Lareau CA, Ulirsch JC, Christian E, Muus C, Li LH, Pelka K, Ge W, Oren Y, Brack A, Law T, Rodman C, Chen JH, Boland GM, Hacohen N, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Aryee MJ, Buenrostro JD, Regev A, Sankaran VG| | PubMed
  10. The Chaperone UNC93B1 Regulates Toll-like Receptor Stability Independently of Endosomal TLR Transport.
    Pelka K, Bertheloot D, Reimer E, Phulphagar K, Schmidt SV, Christ A, Stahl R, Watson N, Miyake K, Hacohen N, Haas A, Brinkmann MM, Marshak-Rothstein A, Meissner F, Latz E| | PubMed
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View all 33 Publications
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 33
  1. Batch correcting single-cell spatial transcriptomics count data with Crescendo improves visualization and detection of spatial gene patterns.
    Millard N, Chen JH, Palshikar MG, Pelka K, Spurrell M, Price C, He J, Hacohen N, Raychaudhuri S, Korsunsky I| | PubMed
  2. Quantized multi-task learning for context-specific representations of gene network dynamics.
    Chen H, Venkatesh MS, Ortega JG, Mahesh SV, Nandi TN, Madduri RK, Pelka K, Theodoris CV| | PubMed
  3. Single-cell transcriptomic analyses reveal distinct immune cell contributions to epithelial barrier dysfunction in checkpoint inhibitor colitis.
    Thomas MF, Slowikowski K, Manakongtreecheep K, Sen P, Samanta N, Tantivit J, Nasrallah M, Zubiri L, Smith NP, Tirard A, Ramesh S, Arnold BY, Nieman LT, Chen JH, Eisenhaure T, Pelka K, Song Y, Xu KH, Jorgji V, Pinto CJ, Sharova T, Glasser R, Chan P, Sullivan RJ, Khalili H, Juric D, Boland GM, Dougan M, Hacohen N, Li B, Reynolds KL, Villani AC| | PubMed
  4. Human lung cancer harbors spatially organized stem-immunity hubs associated with response to immunotherapy.
    Chen JH, Nieman LT, Spurrell M, Jorgji V, Elmelech L, Richieri P, Xu KH, Madhu R, Parikh M, Zamora I, Mehta A, Nabel CS, Freeman SS, Pirl JD, Lu C, Meador CB, Barth JL, Sakhi M, Tang AL, Sarkizova S, Price C, Fernandez NF, Emanuel G, He J, Van Raay K, Reeves JW, Yizhak K, Hofree M, Shih A, Sade-Feldman M, Boland GM, Pelka K, Aryee MJ, Mino-Kenudson M, Gainor JF, Korsunsky I, Hacohen N| | PubMed
  5. Dual checkpoint T(h1)eamwork makes the anti-cancer dream work.
    Dietl A, Ralser A, Pelka K| | PubMed
  6. Author Correction: Massively parallel single-cell mitochondrial DNA genotyping and chromatin profiling.
    Lareau CA, Ludwig LS, Muus C, Gohil SH, Zhao T, Chiang Z, Pelka K, Verboon JM, Luo W, Christian E, Rosebrock D, Getz G, Boland GM, Chen F, Buenrostro JD, Hacohen N, Wu CJ, Aryee MJ, Regev A, Sankaran VG| | PubMed
  7. Spatial analysis of human lung cancer reveals organized immune hubs enriched for stem-like CD8 T cells and associated with immunotherapy response.
    Chen JH, Nieman LT, Spurrell M, Jorgji V, Richieri P, Xu KH, Madhu R, Parikh M, Zamora I, Mehta A, Nabel CS, Freeman SS, Pirl JD, Lu C, Meador CB, Barth JL, Sakhi M, Tang AL, Sarkizova S, Price C, Fernandez NF, Emanuel G, He J, Raay KV, Reeves JW, Yizhak K, Hofree M, Shih A, Sade-Feldman M, Boland GM, Pelka K, Aryee M, Korsunsky I, Mino-Kenudson M, Gainor JF, Hacohen N| | PubMed
  8. Mitochondrial single-cell ATAC-seq for high-throughput multi-omic detection of mitochondrial genotypes and chromatin accessibility.
    Lareau CA, Liu V, Muus C, Praktiknjo SD, Nitsch L, Kautz P, Sandor K, Yin Y, Gutierrez JC, Pelka K, Satpathy AT, Regev A, Sankaran VG, Ludwig LS| | PubMed
  9. Combined PD-1, BRAF and MEK inhibition in BRAFV600E colorectal cancer: a phase 2 trial.
    Tian J, Chen JH, Chao SX, Pelka K, Giannakis M, Hess J, Burke K, Jorgji V, Sindurakar P, Braverman J, Mehta A, Oka T, Huang M, Lieb D, Spurrell M, Allen JN, Abrams TA, Clark JW, Enzinger AC, Enzinger PC, Klempner SJ, McCleary NJ, Meyerhardt JA, Ryan DP, Yurgelun MB, Kanter K, Van Seventer EE, Baiev I, Chi G, Jarnagin J, Bradford WB, Wong E, Michel AG, Fetter IJ, Siravegna G, Gemma AJ, Sharpe A, Demehri S, Leary R, Campbell CD, Yilmaz O, Getz GA, Parikh AR, Hacohen N, Corcoran RB| | PubMed
  10. Targeting TBK1 to overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy.
    Sun Y, Revach OY, Anderson S, Kessler EA, Wolfe CH, Jenney A, Mills CE, Robitschek EJ, Davis TGR, Kim S, Fu A, Ma X, Gwee J, Tiwari P, Du PP, Sindurakar P, Tian J, Mehta A, Schneider AM, Yizhak K, Sade-Feldman M, LaSalle T, Sharova T, Xie H, Liu S, Michaud WA, Saad-Beretta R, Yates KB, Iracheta-Vellve A, Spetz JKE, Qin X, Sarosiek KA, Zhang G, Kim JW, Su MY, Cicerchia AM, Rasmussen MQ, Klempner SJ, Juric D, Pai SI, Miller DM, Giobbie-Hurder A, Chen JH, Pelka K, Frederick DT, Stinson S, Ivanova E, Aref AR, Paweletz CP, Barbie DA, Sen DR, Fisher DE, Corcoran RB, Hacohen N, Sorger PK, Flaherty KT, Boland GM, Manguso RT, Jenkins RW| | PubMed
  11. Listening in on Multicellular Communication in Human Tissue Immunology.
    Albers JJ, Pelka K| | PubMed
  12. Differential pre-malignant programs and microenvironment chart distinct paths to malignancy in human colorectal polyps.
    Chen B, Scurrah CR, McKinley ET, Simmons AJ, Ramirez-Solano MA, Zhu X, Markham NO, Heiser CN, Vega PN, Rolong A, Kim H, Sheng Q, Drewes JL, Zhou Y, Southard-Smith AN, Xu Y, Ro J, Jones AL, Revetta F, Berry LD, Niitsu H, Islam M, Pelka K, Hofree M, Chen JH, Sarkizova S, Ng K, Giannakis M, Boland GM, Aguirre AJ, Anderson AC, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Regev A, Hacohen N, Kawasaki K, Sato T, Goettel JA, Grady WM, Zheng W, Washington MK, Cai Q, Sears CL, Goldenring JR, Franklin JL, Su T, Huh WJ, Vandekar S, Roland JT, Liu Q, Coffey RJ, Shrubsole MJ, Lau KS| | PubMed
  13. Spatially organized multicellular immune hubs in human colorectal cancer.
    Pelka K, Hofree M, Chen JH, Sarkizova S, Pirl JD, Jorgji V, Bejnood A, Dionne D, Ge WH, Xu KH, Chao SX, Zollinger DR, Lieb DJ, Reeves JW, Fuhrman CA, Hoang ML, Delorey T, Nguyen LT, Waldman J, Klapholz M, Wakiro I, Cohen O, Albers J, Smillie CS, Cuoco MS, Wu J, Su MJ, Yeung J, Vijaykumar B, Magnuson AM, Asinovski N, Moll T, Goder-Reiser MN, Applebaum AS, Brais LK, DelloStritto LK, Denning SL, Phillips ST, Hill EK, Meehan JK, Frederick DT, Sharova T, Kanodia A, Todres EZ, Jané-Valbuena J, Biton M, Izar B, Lambden CD, Clancy TE, Bleday R, Melnitchouk N, Irani J, Kunitake H, Berger DL, Srivastava A, Hornick JL, Ogino S, Rotem A, Vigneau S, Johnson BE, Corcoran RB, Sharpe AH, Kuchroo VK, Ng K, Giannakis M, Nieman LT, Boland GM, Aguirre AJ, Anderson AC, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Regev A, Hacohen N| | PubMed
  14. Longitudinal proteomic analysis of severe COVID-19 reveals survival-associated signatures, tissue-specific cell death, and cell-cell interactions.
    Filbin MR, Mehta A, Schneider AM, Kays KR, Guess JR, Gentili M, Fenyves BG, Charland NC, Gonye ALK, Gushterova I, Khanna HK, LaSalle TJ, Lavin-Parsons KM, Lilley BM, Lodenstein CL, Manakongtreecheep K, Margolin JD, McKaig BN, Rojas-Lopez M, Russo BC, Sharma N, Tantivit J, Thomas MF, Gerszten RE, Heimberg GS, Hoover PJ, Lieb DJ, Lin B, Ngo D, Pelka K, Reyes M, Smillie CS, Waghray A, Wood TE, Zajac AS, Jennings LL, Grundberg I, Bhattacharyya RP, Parry BA, Villani AC, Sade-Feldman M, Hacohen N, Goldberg MB| | PubMed
  15. Interaction of TLR4 and TLR8 in the Innate Immune Response against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
    Thada S, Horvath GL, Müller MM, Dittrich N, Conrad ML, Sur S, Hussain A, Pelka K, Gaddam SL, Latz E, Slevogt H, Schumann RR, Burkert S| | PubMed
  16. Plasma proteomics reveals tissue-specific cell death and mediators of cell-cell interactions in severe COVID-19 patients.
    Filbin MR, Mehta A, Schneider AM, Kays KR, Guess JR, Gentili M, Fenyves BG, Charland NC, Gonye ALK, Gushterova I, Khanna HK, LaSalle TJ, Lavin-Parsons KM, Lilly BM, Lodenstein CL, Manakongtreecheep K, Margolin JD, McKaig BN, Rojas-Lopez M, Russo BC, Sharma N, Tantivit J, Thomas MF, Gerszten RE, Heimberg GS, Hoover PJ, Lieb DJ, Lin B, Ngo D, Pelka K, Reyes M, Smillie CS, Waghray A, Wood TE, Zajac AS, Jennings LL, Grundberg I, Bhattacharyya RP, Parry BA, Villani AC, Sade-Feldman M, Hacohen N, Goldberg MB| | PubMed
  17. Large-Scale Topological Changes Restrain Malignant Progression in Colorectal Cancer.
    Johnstone SE, Reyes A, Qi Y, Adriaens C, Hegazi E, Pelka K, Chen JH, Zou LS, Drier Y, Hecht V, Shoresh N, Selig MK, Lareau CA, Iyer S, Nguyen SC, Joyce EF, Hacohen N, Irizarry RA, Zhang B, Aryee MJ, Bernstein BE| | PubMed
  18. Massively parallel single-cell mitochondrial DNA genotyping and chromatin profiling.
    Lareau CA, Ludwig LS, Muus C, Gohil SH, Zhao T, Chiang Z, Pelka K, Verboon JM, Luo W, Christian E, Rosebrock D, Getz G, Boland GM, Chen F, Buenrostro JD, Hacohen N, Wu CJ, Aryee MJ, Regev A, Sankaran VG| | PubMed
  19. Lineage Tracing in Humans Enabled by Mitochondrial Mutations and Single-Cell Genomics.
    Ludwig LS, Lareau CA, Ulirsch JC, Christian E, Muus C, Li LH, Pelka K, Ge W, Oren Y, Brack A, Law T, Rodman C, Chen JH, Boland GM, Hacohen N, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Aryee MJ, Buenrostro JD, Regev A, Sankaran VG| | PubMed
  20. The Chaperone UNC93B1 Regulates Toll-like Receptor Stability Independently of Endosomal TLR Transport.
    Pelka K, Bertheloot D, Reimer E, Phulphagar K, Schmidt SV, Christ A, Stahl R, Watson N, Miyake K, Hacohen N, Haas A, Brinkmann MM, Marshak-Rothstein A, Meissner F, Latz E| | PubMed
  21. Western Diet Triggers NLRP3-Dependent Innate Immune Reprogramming.
    Christ A, Günther P, Lauterbach MAR, Duewell P, Biswas D, Pelka K, Scholz CJ, Oosting M, Haendler K, Baßler K, Klee K, Schulte-Schrepping J, Ulas T, Moorlag SJCFM, Kumar V, Park MH, Joosten LAB, Groh LA, Riksen NP, Espevik T, Schlitzer A, Li Y, Fitzgerald ML, Netea MG, Schultze JL, Latz E| | PubMed
  22. Emerging Concepts in Innate Immunity.
    Pelka K, De Nardo D| | PubMed
  23. Heavy Metal Enlightens Tumor Immunity.
    Chen JH, Pelka K, Hacohen N| | PubMed
  24. TLR9 Deficiency Leads to Accelerated Renal Disease and Myeloid Lineage Abnormalities in Pristane-Induced Murine Lupus.
    Bossaller L, Christ A, Pelka K, Nündel K, Chiang PI, Pang C, Mishra N, Busto P, Bonegio RG, Schmidt RE, Latz E, Marshak-Rothstein A| | PubMed
  25. Nucleic acid-sensing TLRs and autoimmunity: novel insights from structural and cell biology.
    Pelka K, Shibata T, Miyake K, Latz E| | PubMed
  26. TLR8 Senses Bacterial RNA in Human Monocytes and Plays a Nonredundant Role for Recognition of Streptococcus pyogenes.
    Eigenbrod T, Pelka K, Latz E, Kreikemeyer B, Dalpke AH| | PubMed
  27. Synergistic activation of Toll-like receptor 8 by two RNA degradation products.
    Geyer M, Pelka K, Latz E| | PubMed
  28. Cutting edge: the UNC93B1 tyrosine-based motif regulates trafficking and TLR responses via separate mechanisms.
    Pelka K, Phulphagar K, Zimmermann J, Stahl R, Schmid-Burgk JL, Schmidt T, Spille JH, Labzin LI, Agrawal S, Kandimalla ER, Casanova JL, Hornung V, Marshak-Rothstein A, Höning S, Latz E| | PubMed
  29. OutKnocker: a web tool for rapid and simple genotyping of designer nuclease edited cell lines.
    Schmid-Burgk JL, Schmidt T, Gaidt MM, Pelka K, Latz E, Ebert TS, Hornung V| | PubMed
  30. RAGE is a nucleic acid receptor that promotes inflammatory responses to DNA.
    Sirois CM, Jin T, Miller AL, Bertheloot D, Nakamura H, Horvath GL, Mian A, Jiang J, Schrum J, Bossaller L, Pelka K, Garbi N, Brewah Y, Tian J, Chang C, Chowdhury PS, Sims GP, Kolbeck R, Coyle AJ, Humbles AA, Xiao TS, Latz E| | PubMed
  31. IRF5, IRF8, and IRF7 in human pDCs - the good, the bad, and the insignificant?
    Pelka K, Latz E| | PubMed
  32. The Fer tyrosine kinase is important for platelet-derived growth factor-BB-induced signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein phosphorylation, colony formation in soft agar, and tumor growth in vivo.
    Lennartsson J, Ma H, Wardega P, Pelka K, Engström U, Hellberg C, Heldin CH| | PubMed
  33. Getting closer to the dirty little secret.
    Pelka K, Latz E| | PubMed