Projects
Tackling tumor immunosuppression by reprograming eicosanoid metabolism and signaling in the tumor microenvironment KU Leuven
Despite numerous advances achieved in cancer treatment, the prognosis for patients with liver malignancies still remains poor. Indeed, one of the three most common causes of cancer-related death is represented by liver cancer, accounting for around 1 million deaths per year, to which one has to add all the deaths due to metastasis in the liver – the preferred niche of many tumor types, including melanoma. The liver is a complex organ that ...
Elucidating the role of CD11b+ conventional dendritic cells (cDC2) in the tumor microenvironment and their potential use as tumor vaccine. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
anti-tumor T cells are first activated in vivo is still incompletely ...
Modeling the Metabolic Competition between Immune and Cancer Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment KU Leuven
Immunotherapy, based on enhancing the natural anti-tumor defense provided by the immune system, is a promising therapeutic approach against cancer. However, its success is compromised by the impaired metabolic fitness of immune cells upon entering the tumor microenvironment, which prevents them from killing the cancer cells. Identifying the mechanisms responsible for this impaired metabolic fitness is crucial to improve the response rates to ...
PRECISION IMMUNE-ENGINEERING OF THE TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT Ghent University
Immunotherapy holds the potential to dramatically improve the
curative prognosis of cancer patients. However, despite significant
progress, a huge gap remains to be bridged to gain broad success in
the clinic. A first limiting factor in cancer immunotherapy is the low
response rate in a large fraction of the patients. The second limiting
factor is immune-related toxicity that can cause live-threatening ...
Imaging of receptor activator of the nuclear factor κ B ligand (RANKL) tumor microenvironment using immuno-positron emission tomography (PET) in models of head-and-neck and breast cancer. University of Antwerp
Metabolic editing of the tumor microenvironment as a novel strategy to abate immunosuppression KU Leuven
Cancer immunotherapy has provided patients with a promising treatment approach but also revealed that several tumors rarely exhibit objective responses to these therapies. The harsh tumor microenvironment (TME) along with all his cellular and metabolic crosstalk between cancer and stromal cells is certainly a key player in orchestrating alternative immunosuppressive mechanisms. The next challenge is therefore to identify novel mechanisms and ...
Biochemical and functional study of post-translationally modified CXC chemokines in the tumor microenvironment KU Leuven
Solid tumors not only include tumor cells but also connective tissue cells, blood vessels and inflammatory cells (white blood cells or leukocytes), all of which are interposed between the malignant cells and normal host tissue. This stroma is required to reach tumor sizes beyond 2 mm, as it provides oxygen, nutrients and growth factors which promote proliferation, invasion and metastasis of the malignant cells. Thus, a detailed understanding ...