Christiane Querfeld, MD, PhD, is an associate professor at City of Hope and the Beckman Research Institute. She is the director of City of Hope's Cutaneous Lymphoma Program and Research. Dr. Querfeld is interested in the complex network within the tumor microenvironment. She has designed and begun a clinical Phase I/II trial of durvalumab, which is an inhibitor of the checkpoint protein PD-L1, with or without the immunomodulatory agent lenalidomide for patients with cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) with impressive results witnessed in enrolled patients. She has data supporting immune signatures on skin biopsies at baseline from patients on trial that may be predictive of response. Her laboratory investigates the dynamic interaction between primary CTCL cells and other immune cells. Her current focus is PD-L1 regulation through a complex network of immune cells, cytokines and small RNA molecules, but also the interaction with other immune checkpoints. Her work has been published in high-yield journals such as Cancer Immunology Research.