Debora Barbosa Vendramini Costa, PhD

Biographical Statement

Dr. Barbosa Vendramini Costa is an assistant scientist in the Henry Ford Cancer Department of Surgery. As a cancer biologist, her focus is the tumor microenvironment and the biology of immune cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts. In January 2023, Dr. Barbosa Vendramini Costa, together with her husband Dr. Ralph Francescone, joined the Pancreatic Cancer team at Henry Ford and opened the Vendramini-Francescone Lab. In addition, Dr. Barbosa Vendramini Costa is the responsible PI of grants from the Department of Defense and the National Cancer Institute. She also is an associate professor of research in the Department of Physiology, College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University, and an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Oncology, School of Medicine at Wayne State University.

Research Interests

The Vendramini-Francescone Lab focuses on understanding the tumor microenvironment, the collection of cancerous and non-cancerous cell types and their secreted material, and how they interact at the cellular and molecular levels within a particular tumor. The lab is dedicated to dissecting how this complex tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer is established and evolves, supporting pancreatic tumor progression. The goal is to uncover targets that can normalize this microenvironment and promote the effectiveness of therapies. The lab also focuses on finding biomarkers for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer features a highly fibrotic and immunosuppressive stroma, representing a challenge for chemotherapies and immunotherapies. The team is specifically interested in how fibroblasts get activated and expand, and how these cells, and their extracellular matrix, suppress antitumor immune responses in the tumor, while promoting pro-tumoral immune cell functions. Major projects in the lab focus on how neuronal programs and stress response pathways regulate pro-tumor functions in fibroblasts in pancreatic cancer, as well as translational studies characterizing the tumor interstitial fluid isolated directly from patient surgical samples as a tool for the discovery of new biomarkers for early detection.

The lab strongly believes that by modulating the stroma, therapeutic responses will be improved, resulting in better outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.

The lab uses several methods, including:

• 3D multicellular culturing system
• CRISPR/CRISPRi based methods to modulate protein expression
• Immune cell functional assays
• Single cell and spatial technologies
• Genetic and orthotopic mouse models of pancreatic cancer
• Patient-derived tissue, cells, and tumor interstitial fluid for translational studies.

These integrated in vitro, in vivo, and translational approaches allow the team to probe basic biology questions in pancreatic cancer, with the hope of translating these novel findings to the clinic in the future.

Email: dbarbos1@hfhs.org

Awards and Honors

• (2025 - 2030) NCI/NIH R01 Principal Investigator. Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in the function of cancer associated fibroblasts in pancreatic cancer
• (2023 - 2026) PCARP-IDA – Department of Defense (DOD), Pancreatic Cancer Research Program, Idea Development Award. Principal Investigator. Netrin G1 Ligand: A New Immunomodulatory Target and Early Biomarker in Pancreatic Cancer.