Dr. Ageliki Tsagaratou, Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, is the recipient of a UNC Junior Faculty Development Award for her project titled “Epigenetic Programming of Invariant Natural Killer (iNKT) Cells”. By taking advantage of unique mouse models, genome wide datasets and new molecular tools, the work aims to identify the targets that TET2 and TET3 have in iNKT cells. This will allow the lab to manipulate a) iNKT cell proliferation and b) iNKT cell cytotoxic function to enhance their protective performance in the tumor microenvironment. In the long-term, this work will allow her lab to develop novel strategies to unleash the precise power of tumor-specific iNKT cells for cancer immunotherapy.