Cancer immunomonitoring and therapy
In vivo targeting and modulation of dendritic cells (DC) and the use of NKT and γδT cells for tumor immunotherapy. This research line encompasses promising approaches to the induction and monitoring of anti-tumor immune responses. Since cancer cells can obstruct immune reactivity at various levels, identification of ways to circumvent immune tolerance will be critical for successful translation of such approaches into efficacious immunotherapies in clinical cancer.
The aims of our research are
• Identification of optimal strategies for clinical DC targeting, and unravelling mechanisms maintaining tumor tolerance
• Introduction of drugs identified for their possible tolerance reversal potencies into (pre)clinical trials, such as cytokines (e.g. GM-CSF, IL-12), chemokines (e.g. CXCL12), microbial TLR-ligands (e.g. CpG), and mAbs and drugs (e.g. anti-CTLA4, anti-CD40, anti-PD1 (VEGF-R) tyrosine kinase inhibitors, KRN7000). Harnessing the anti-tumor effects of NKT and γδT cells.
• Development of phenotypic and functional assays in aid of therapy monitoring.
Expression profiling will be set up for tumor infiltrating lymphocytes of tumor draining lymph node derived lymphocytes.
Rik Scheper PhD - program leader
Erik Hooijberg PhD - program leader
George Scheffer PhD - postdoc
Mari van den Hout MD - PhD student
Annelies Turksma MSc - PhD student
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