Our immune system is not only capable of fighting infections but can also, in principle, recognize and eliminate cancer cells. The principle of immunotherapy involves "training" the immune system to fight cancer. This is achieved, for example, through genetic modification of specific immune cells called T cells. These T cells can be engineered to carry a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on their surface. The resulting CAR T cells can then recognize and eliminate cancer cells in the patient’s body. This type of therapy has already been highly successful in treating children and adolescents with a specific type of blood cancer (lymphoblastic leukemia). Unfortunately, the therapy has so far been less effective for other forms of blood cancer (myeloid leukemia) and most solid tumors (e.g., brain tumors or bone tumors). We aim to change this! Our research projects focus on questions such as: What strategies have tumors developed to evade detection by the immune system? How can CAR T cells recruit other immune cells for help? How can we optimize T cells to effectively migrate to solid tumors and eliminate them?
The techniques performed in our laboratory include genetic engineering (e.g., using CRISPR/Cas9, lentiviruses, or retroviruses), cell culture, flow cytometry, CRISPR screens, next-generation sequencing, various tumor models, and functional analyses (e.g., characterizing CAR T cell function). Our projects are carried out in close collaboration with colleagues at the DKFZ, KiTZ, and UKHD, as well as with our national and international partners.
Together, we aim to unravel the functionality of immune cells in cancer and develop a new generation of immunotherapies for cancer treatment.
Team
We are an international team with expertise in genetic engineering, immunotherapy, tumor models, pediatrics, immunology, genomics, bioinformatics and CRISPR screens.
Blaeschke, F., Chen, Y., Apathy, R., Daniel, B., Chen, A.Y., Chen, P., Sandor, K., Zhang, W., Li, Z., Mowery, C.T., Yamamoto, T.N., Nyberg, W.A., To, A., Yu, R., Bueno, R., Kim, M., Schmidt, R., Goodman, D.B., Feuchtinger, T., Eyquem, J., Ye, C.J., Carnevale, J., Satpathy, A.T., Shifrut, E., Roth, T.L., and Marson, A
