October 3, 2025
Please join us in
congratulating Dayana Rivadeneira, PhD, on her new role as Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, effective September 1, 2025.
She will develop an independently funded and nationally recognized research program in cancer immunology and immunotherapy that will include collaborative efforts with basic research and clinical faculty across UPMC Hillman.
Dr. Rivadeneira has been involved in cancer biology and therapeutics research since she was an undergraduate student at Florida Atlantic University. She earned her PhD in molecular genetics from Thomas Jefferson University, where she also completed a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Research/Trials. At the Wistar Institute, her postdoctoral research focused on potential metabolic strategies for inhibiting metastasis and tumor progression.
She joined Pitt in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Drs. Greg Delgoffe and Robert Ferris to focus her research career on cancer immunology, and she was appointed as a Research Assistant Professor in 2020.
Dr. Rivadeneira is interested in understanding how immune cells in the tumor microenvironment respond to DNA damage due to intratumoral metabolic alterations, systemic changes, and external insults, with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapeutic strategies to overcome these barriers. A major initial focus of her research program will investigate how oxidative damage at telomeres leads to T cell dysfunction and how this could be prevented to improve adoptive cell therapies.
Dr. Rivadeneira has over 20 publications, and she has presented her work in posters, presentations, and as an invited speaker at numerous conferences across the U.S. She has been recognized for her research by SITC, AAI, AACR, Pitt, and UPMC Hillman. She holds a patent for expression of metabolic modulators utilizing oncolytic vaccinia virus to improve tumor therapy. She is the recipient of an R21 grant from the NIH for her work to neutralize oxidative damage at telomeres to prevent T cell dysfunction and improve adoptive cell therapies against cancer.