Jeanette Boudreau

Education

BSc: University of Waterloo
PhD: McMaster University
Postdoctoral Training: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Research interests

We investigate how human natural killer cell immunogenetics program immune responsiveness to cancer and infectious diseases. We use bioinformatics, immune-competent humanized in vivo models and faithful 3D model systems, cell-signal analysis, and highly-parametric flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry to understand how genetic variation creates diversity in human immune potentials. Our interdisciplinary and collaborative work aims to translate research findings into precision therapies.

Selected publications

For a full list of Dr. Boudreau's publications, click here.

Pugh-Toole M, Dawe N, Smith A, Boudreau JE, Leung BM. Tumor spheroids layered in an imageable cancer environment (T-SLICE): a novel in vitro platform to study tumor biology. BioRxiv 2022, updated 2025 Feb. 

Hsu KC, Konotopoulos T, Le Luduec JB, Boudreau JE. Natural Killer Cell Repertoires and Functional Diversity: Calibration Through Education. Chapter in Natural Killer cells 2025. Feb.

Arseneau RJ, Kempster E, Bekkers C, Samson T, Gala-Lopez BL, Ramjeesingh R, Boudreau JE, Arnason T. Claudin 18 (43-14A clone) expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Assessment of a potential clinical biomarker for zolbetuxumab therapy. Transl Oncol. 2025 May; 55:102362.

Kelly B, Boudreau JE, Beyea S, Brewer K. Molecular imaging of viral pathogeneiss and opportunities for the future. NPJ Imaging. 2025;3(1):3.

Boudreau JE. Immune-molecular interactions in high-grade serous ovarian cancer distinguish long-term survivors. J Clin Invest. 2024 Dec 16;134(24):e184790.

Westhaver LP, Nersesian S, Arseneau RJ, Hefler J, Hargreaves BKV, Edgar A, Azizieh Y, Cuesta-Gomez N, Izquierdo DL, Shapiro AMJ, Gala-Lopez BL, Boudreau JE. Mitochondrial DNA levels in perfusate and bile during ex vivo normothermic machine correspond with donor liver quality. Heliyon. 2024 Feb 24; 10(5):e27122.

Nersesian S, Arseneau RJ, Mejia JP, Lee SN, Westhaver LP, Griffiths NW, Grantham SR, Meunier L, Communal L, Mukherjee A, Mes-Masson AM, Arnason T, Nelson BH, Boudreau JE. Improved overall survival in patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer is associated with CD16a+ immunologic neighborhoods containing NK cells, T cells and macrophages. Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 22;14:1307873.

Westhaver LP, Nersesian S, Nelson A, MacLean LK, Carter EB, Rowter D, Wang J, Gala-Lopez BL, Stadnyk AW, Johnston B, Boudreau JE. Mitochondrial damage-associated molecular patterns trigger arginase-dependent lymphocyte immunoregulation. Cell Rep. 2022 May 24;39(8):110847.

Nersesian S, Carter EB, Lee SN, Westhaver LP, Boudreau JE. Killer instincts: natural killer cells as multifactorial cancer immunotherapy. Front Immunol. 2023 Nov 28;14:1269614.

Shin EM, Westhaver L, Nersesian S, Boudreau JE, Gala-Lopez BL. Predicting Early Graft Dysfunction and Mortality After Liver Transplant Using the De Ritis Ratio. Transplant Proc. 2023 Apr;55(3):586-596.

Azizieh Y, Westhaver LP, Badrudin D, Boudreau JE, Gala-Lopez BL.Changing liver utilization and discard rates in clinical transplantation in the ex-vivo machine preservation era. Front Med Technol. 2023 Feb 23;5:1079003.

Mansouri S, Daniel L, Amhis N, Leveille M, Boudreau JE, Alkayyal AA, Collin Y, Tai LH.Perioperative oncolytic virotherapy to counteract surgery-induced immunosuppression and improve outcomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Front Oncol. 2023 Feb 16;13:1071751.

Nersesian S, Boudreau JE. Manual Immunofluorescence of Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Human Tumor Tissues. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2508:169-181.

Pugh-Toole M, Nicolela AP, Nersesian S, Leung BM, Boudreau JE. Natural killer cells: The missing link in effective treatment for high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Curr Treat Options Oncol 2022 Feb;23(2):210-226.

Nersesian S, Schwartz SL, Grantham SR, MacLean LK, Lee SN, Pugh-Toole M, Boudreau JE. NK cell infiltration is assocaited with improved overall survival in solid cancers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Translational Oncology 2021 Jan;14(1):100930.

Hargreaves BKV, Roberts S, Derfalvi B, Boudreau JE. Highly Efficient Serum-Free Manipulation of miRNA in Human NK Cells Without Loss of Viability or Phenotypic Alterations Is Accomplished With TransIT-TKO. Plos ONE 2020 Apr 17;15(4):e0231664.

Savoy SKA, Boudreau JE. The evolutionary arms race between virus and NK cells: diversity enables population-level virus control. Viruses, 2019 17;11(10) pii. E959.

Nersesian S, Glazebrook H, Toulany J, Grantham S, Boudreau JE. Naturally killing the silent killer: NK cell-based immunotherapy for ovarian cancer. Frontiers in Immunology. 2019 9;10:1782.

Le Luduec JB, Kudva A, Boudreau JE, Hsu KC. Novel multiplex PCR-SSP method for centromeric KIR allele discrimination. Sci Rep 2018 Oct 5;8(1):14853.

Boudreau JE, Hsu KC. Natural killer cell edducation and the response to infection and cancer therapy: Stay Tuned. Trends Immunol. 2018 Mar;39(3):222-239.

Boudreau JE, Hsu KC. Natural killer cell education in human health and disease. Curr Opin Immunol. 2018 Feb:50:102-111.

Boudreau JE, Giglio F, Gooley TA, Stevenson PA, Le Luduec JB, Rajalinam R, Hou L, Katovich Hurley C, Lebedeva T, Noreen H, Reed EF, Yu N, Vierra-Green C, Haagenson MD, Malkki M, Petersdorf EW, Spellman S, Hsu KC. Donor KIR3DL1 and HLA-B subtype combinations predict acute myelogenous leukemia control after HLA-compatible hematopoietic cell transplantation. J Clin Oncol, 2017 Jul 10;35(20):2268-2278.

Boudreau JE, Liu XR, Zhao, Z. Shang A, Shultz LD, Greiner DL, Dupont B, Hsu KC. Cell-Extrinsic MHC Class I Molecule Engagement Augments Human NK Cell Education Programmed by Cell-Intrinsic MHC Class I. Immunity. 2016 Aug 16;45(2):280-91. doi: 10.10.16/j.immuni.2016.07.005.

Boudreau JE, Mulrooney TJ, Le Luduec JB, Barker E, Hsu KC. KIR3DL1 and HLA-B Density and Binding Calibrate NK Education and Response to HIV. J Immunol. 2016 Apr 15;196(8):3398-410. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1502469.

Forlenza, CJ, Boudreau JE, Zheng J, Le Luduec JB, Chamberlain E, Heller G, Cheung NK, Hsu KC. KIR3DL1 Allelic Polymorphism and HLA-B Epitopes Modulate Response to Anti-GD2 Monoclonal Antibody in Patients With Neuroblastoma. J Clin Oncol . 2016 Jul 20;34(21):2443-51. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2015.64.9558.

Selected awards and honours

• 2021 Dalhousie University President's Award - Emerging Investigator
  
• 2020 Faculty of Medicine Award for Basic Science Research
• 2019 Terry Fox New Investigator Award
  
• 2016 Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation Cameron Cancer Scientist

Teaching
MICI3115: Immunology MICI5016/5036: Topics in Advanced Immunology