The Cottrell Lab

Looking for a post-doctoral fellowship on the cutting edge of immunotherapy biomarker research? Join our energetic lab at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON and lead a project that integrates pathology, immunology, data science, and clinical trials leveraging the AstroPath platform. Our goal is to profile the pre-treatment tumor microenvironment for biomarker identification using tumor tissues collected as part of cutting-edge clinical trials. You will collaborate regularly with team members at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, Queen's University, and Johns Hopkins University.

Qualifications: PhD in an applied quantitative discipline (e.g., computational biology, bioinformatics, biostatistics, mathematics, computer science, biomedical engineering, etc.) with a strong interest in translational biomedical research. Experience with programming (Python, Matlab, R or other programming language) and SQL databases preferred. Research publications are required. Experience with computational pathology, single cell imaging, spatial analyses or digital pathology image analysis preferred.

Interested? Email your cover letter and CV to cottrell.lab@queensu.ca.

Summer Student, Volunteer, and Graduate School Positions : Sadly, we have no more room for students or volunteers for the next year. We will update this page when we have availability. Thank you.

Dr. Tricia Cottrell is a clinician scientist whose research focuses on tumour-immune interactions in solid tumours, and the identification of predictive and prognostic biomarkers in pre-treatment and post-treatment tumour tissues. Cottrell completed her MD, PhD, Anatomic Pathology Residency, and post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON.

One of Dr. Cottrell’s key research contributions was the first characterization of the features of immune-mediated tumour regression following neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). This published clinical trial was used to develop a set of proposed immune-related pathologic response criteria for the standardized and reproducible assessment of pathologic response following neoadjuvant immunotherapy. These criteria are now being evaluated in a large clinical trial of neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy in NSCLC. These findings have also been extended to other tumor types and efforts to develop a pan-cancer method for quantifying pathologic response are underway.

Current affiliations

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen’s University
Queen's Cancer Research Institute
Senior Investigator, Laboratory Translational Research, Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG)
Deputy Director, CCTG Tumour Tissue and Data Repository
Member, CCTG Correlative Science and Tumour Biology Committee Executive
Clinician Scientist I, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)

Research interests

Tumour-immune microenvironment
Immuno-oncology
Pathology
Immunology
Lung cancer
Multiplex immunofluorescence

Contact

Email: cottrell.lab@queensu.ca

Select publications

Caushi JX, Zhang J, Ji Z, Vaghasia A, Zhang B, Hsiue EH, Mog BJ, Hou W, Justesen S, Blosser R, Tam A, Anagnostou V, Cottrell TR, ..., Smith KN. Transcriptional programs of neoantigen-specific TIL in anti-PD-1-treated lung cancers. Nature. 2021 Aug;596(7870):126-132. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03752-4. Epub 2021 Jul 21. Erratum in: Nature. 2021 Oct 4;: PMID: 34290408; PMCID: PMC8338555.
Berry S, Giraldo NA, Green BF, Cottrell TR, ..., Taube JM. Analysis of multispectral imaging with the AstroPath platform informs efficacy of PD-1 blockade. Science. 2021 Jun 11;372(6547):eaba2609. doi: 10.1126/science.aba2609. PMID: 34112666.
Cottrell TR, Zhang J, Zhang B, Kaunitz GJ, ..., Taube JM, Smith KN. Evaluating T-cell cross-reactivity between tumors and immune-related adverse events with TCR sequencing: pitfalls in interpretations of functional relevance. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 2021;9:e002642. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2021-002642.
Cottrell TR, ..., McMahan ZH. Expression of the Autoantigen Topoisomerase-1 is Enriched in the Lung Tissues of Patients With Autoimmune Interstitial Lung Disease: A Case Control Study. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2020 Nov;2(11):657-661. doi: 10.1002/acr2.11191. Epub 2020 Oct 29. PMID: 33118283; PMCID: PMC7672300.
Reuss JE, Anagnostou V, Cottrell TR, ..., Forde PM. Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab in resectable non-small cell lung cancer. J Immunother Cancer. 2020 Sep;8(2):e001282. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2020-001282. PMID: 32929052; PMCID: PMC7488786.
Naidoo J, Cottrell TR, ..., Suresh K. Chronic immune checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis. J Immunother Cancer. 2020 Jun;8(1):e000840. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2020-000840. Erratum in: J Immunother Cancer. 2020 Nov;8(2): PMID: 32554618; PMCID: PMC7304886.
Zhang J, Ji Z, Caushi JX, El Asmar M, Anagnostou V, Cottrell TR, ..., Smith KN. Compartmental Analysis of T-cell Clonal Dynamics as a Function of Pathologic Response to Neoadjuvant PD-1 Blockade in Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Mar 15;26(6):1327-1337. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-2931. Epub 2019 Nov 21. PMID: 31754049; PMCID: PMC7073288.
Stein JE, Lipson EJ, Cottrell TR, ..., Taube JM. Pan-Tumor Pathologic Scoring of Response to PD-(L)1 Blockade. Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Feb 1;26(3):545-551. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-2379. Epub 2019 Oct 31. PMID: 31672770; PMCID: PMC7002263.
Smith KN, Llosa NJ, Cottrell TR, ..., Housseau F. Persistent mutant oncogene specific T cells in two patients benefitting from anti-PD-1. J Immunother Cancer. 2019 Feb 11;7(1):40. doi: 10.1186/s40425-018-0492-x. Erratum in: J Immunother Cancer. 2019 Mar 6;7(1):63. PMID: 30744692; PMCID: PMC6371497.

See Dr. Cottrell’s publications on PubMed or on Google Scholar.

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