Dr. Amaria co-directs the biospecimen collection efforts in the melanoma clinic and has helped build an infrastructure conducive to obtaining serial blood samples and tumor biopsies in patients undergoing treatment to elucidate biomarkers of response and resistance. She is involved in the development of neoadjuvant protocols in melanoma which allows for longitudinal tumor collections to understand changes in the tumor microenvironment in response to a specific treatment. She has an interest in translational immunotherapy research with a focus on understanding mechanisms of resistance to immunomodulatory therapies. Since joining MD Anderson, Dr. Amaria has been involved with enhancing the adoptive cell therapy program using tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. The hope of the program is to better understand how T cell therapy can be applied to help more patients with melanoma and make ACT more widely accessible to patients.