Seagal Teitz-Tennenbaum, M.D., is a Research Investigator in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Michigan Health Systems. Dr. Teitz-Tennenbaum received her medical degree in 1991, from Tel-Aviv University in Tel-Aviv, Israel. She completed her general surgical residency in 1999, at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin, Israel. In 2001, Dr. Teitz-Tennenbaum became a Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan Health Systems and in September 2005, joined the faculty as a Research Investigator in the Section of General Surgery.

Dr. Teitz-Tennenbaum's research focuses on designing novel strategies for immunotherapy of cancer. Her studies aim at enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of both dendritic cell-based tumor vaccines and tumor-reactive T cells for adoptive transfer using radiotherapy and chemotherapy, respectively. Sarcoma and melanoma tumor models are established in experimental animals. Induction of a systemic tumor-specific immune response to the combined treatment protocol is evaluated by cytokine release and ELISPOT assays, while the anti-tumor response is monitored by assessment of tumor regression and survival. Using flow cytometry and cytometric bead array, Dr. Teitz-Tennenbaum investigates the effect of ionizing radiation on the immunogenicity of tumor cells, and on the microenvironment within solid malignant tumors in terms of immune infiltrating cells and inflammatory cytokine milieu. She explores the capacity of dendritic cells to acquire tumor associated antigens from irradiated tumor cells, and then to migrate to the tumor draining lymph node, and present these processed antigens to T cells. An additional research effort is devoted to evaluating the function of adoptively transferred effector cells in the tumor bearing lymphopenic host.