On the Cancer Research Frontier: Adam Prince, Research Scientist at Immunological Monitoring Laboratory
- Leila Okahata
- 35 minutes ago
- 3 min read
On the Cancer Research Frontier is a series spotlighting the scientists, doctors, nurses, patients, and philanthropists at the Cancer Vaccine Institute. Join us in meeting the brilliant minds behind our cancer vaccines and immunotherapies as they share their professional journeys and personal stories.
Tucked in a quiet corner of the laboratory are two large tanks of liquid nitrogen that are at the center of Adam Prince’s work. Each time he opens them, Prince is reaching back through decades of cancer research.
Stored at -190 degrees Celsius (-310 degrees Fahrenheit) are 33,000 vials of white blood cells from cancer patients, some collected as far back as the late 1980s. The blood samples are processed, analyzed, and preserved to help determine whether our cancer vaccines are working — and what the immune system still has to teach us, even 40 years later.
“Even though we can’t see the cells in these tubes with our naked eyes, I’m always fascinated,” said Prince, a research scientist at the CVI who supports the Immunologic Monitoring Laboratory in processing patient samples from clinical trials.
He specifically isolates and freezes peripheral blood mononuclear cells, a category of white blood cells that are of particular interest to researchers. At the CVI, these cells reveal how well a patient’s immune system is reacting to a cancer vaccine, which is critical information for improving the design of effective and safe cancer vaccines and immunotherapies.
“We’re looking for markers like interferon gamma, which tells us the immune system is responding and activating, so we want to see positive levels of it,” Prince said. “Another marker, IL-10, we want to be at negative levels because it’s linked to suppressing the immune response or helping cancer cells persist.”
Prince works with almost everyone at the CVI, from senior scientists developing a vaccine for colon cancer and postdoctoral fellows investigating the links between obesity and breast cancer. When a researcher needs blood samples, he’s the one retrieving them from inventory and examining the patient’s clinical immune response.
Although now a backbone for the CVI, Prince didn’t initially set out to be a researcher. When he began college, he thought he’d go into medicine — possibly ophthalmology — and studied math as a pre-med path. But after switching majors and completing a biomedical sciences degree at the University of Washington Tacoma, he realized research offered a different kind of reach in the world.
“Doctors have an incredible role in caring for hundreds of patients directly,” Prince said, “But I found myself drawn to the idea that, through research, I could contribute to something — like the creation of a vaccine — that might help thousands or even millions of people.”
After graduating in 2018, Prince first worked in the biotech industry, where he investigated laundry as a source of hospital contamination. He recalled swabbing the inside of an industrial laundry machine the size of a semi-truck.
He later worked as a microbiology scientist for a Greek yogurt company, followed by joining a Seattle-based company where he validated COVID-19 vaccines in 2022.
His prior experience with COVID-19 immunology helped him hit the ground running at CVI, where cancer vaccines similarly rely on stimulating a precise immune response. Though what struck him to transition to the CVI was beyond translational skills but a personal resonance.
“Many of our current vaccine targets, like colon, prostate, and diabetes, follow pretty closely in my family,” Prince said. “For me, and for many of our colleagues, this work is personal. We've either experienced it or someone in our family has.”
Outside the lab, Prince is a mentor through UW’s Huskies@Work alumni program, helping graduating students navigate the transition into the professional world. So far, he’s mentored four biology students, one of whom now works just across the street.
“It’s been something that adds a type of joy to my life that I wasn’t expecting,” Prince said. “It’s cultivated a passion in which we need to help people in science, no matter their background, and make sure that science is still heard, especially in these hard times. It's been quite an adventure with mentorships, from once being a mentee to now paying it forward as a mentor for current students.”
When he’s not in the lab, Prince is hiking the Pacific Northwest mountain ranges or competing in racing simulators. He once beat a professional Formula One driver’s time in the video game Gran Turismo and won a $100 gift card.
But whether it’s racing simulators or biochemical assays, Prince brings the same mindset to his work: looking forward to a challenge. Whether a day in the lab brings success or setbacks, it’s an effort to help others live longer, healthier lives — one sample at a time.