Johns Hopkins University · BiologyGut Microbiome and Cancer Therapy Unit
Karen Sandell Sfanos · Baltimore, Maryland
Research Focus
Dr. Karen Sandell Sfanos and her lab focus on understanding how gut bacteria produce androgen hormones that can affect cancer treatment effectiveness, particularly in metastatic prostate cancer. They explore the role of the microbiome in shaping how patients respond to immunotherapies and hormone therapies. Their goal is to identify bacterial genes and metabolites that contribute to resistance against cancer treatments, with the hope of finding new therapeutic approaches.
gut microbiomeandrogen productionmetastatic prostate cancertherapy resistanceimmunotherapyendocrine therapytumor immunitybacterial genesmicrobial metabolites
Research Aims
3AIM 01Define how microbial-derived androgens affect immunotherapy effectiveness.
AIM 02Identify microbial genes and metabolites associated with therapy resistance in metastatic prostate cancer.
AIM 03Evaluate the impact of gut bacteria on tumor growth and hormone therapy resistance.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturemouse modelsDNA sequencinggene expression analysismicrobiome analysisimmunological assaysflow cytometrybiostatisticsmolecular cloningclinical trial design
Output against the department
Publications276top 21% of dept.218th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations6.1kbottom 44% of dept.578th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.