Projects
Preclinical concept validation of tumor endothelial cell metabolism for novel anti-angiogenic therapy KU Leuven
MAIN GOAL: To characterize the metabolic changes, fuelling growth of tumor endothelial cells (TECs) versus normal healthy endothelial cells (NECs), and identify & validate metabolic genes, deregulated in TECs, as targets for anti-angiogenic cancer therapy.
BACKGROUND & RATIONALE: Tumors stimulate blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) to nourish cancer cells, but current anti-angiogenic treatments lack sufficient efficacy. NECs ...
Improving immunotherapy via tumor vessel normalization by blocking endothelial cell glycolysis KU Leuven
Traditional anti-angiogenesis strategies destroy tumor vessels. Their success is restricted by toxicity and resistance. The need for new anti-angiogenic strategies with fundamental distinct mechanisms is timely. An alternative therapeutic paradigm is tumor vessel normalization (TVN). By healing disorganized vessels, TVN improves perfusion and oxygenation, tightens the leaky vascular wall, thus reducing metastasis and enhancing chemotherapy ...
Endothelial cell metabolism blockade to induce tumor vessel normalization and improve immunotherapy KU Leuven
Traditional anti-angiogenesis strategies attempt to prune tumor vessels. However, their success is restricted by toxicity and resistance. There is thus an unmet need for new anti-angiogenic strategies with fundamentally distinct mechanisms. An alternative therapeutic paradigm is tumor vessel normalization (TVN). By healing disorganized vessels, TVN improves perfusion and oxygenation, tightens the leaky vascular wall, thus reducing metastasis ...
Tumor endothelial cell autophagy is a key vascular-immune checkpoint in melanoma. KU Leuven
Autophagy is a well-conserved intracellular catabolic pathway maintaining cellular homeostasis and is governed by various autophagy-related genes (Atg). Defects in autophagy result in various human pathologies such as cancer. Autophagy has a complex role in cancer, where it functions as a tumor suppressor at the initial stage of tumor initiation but in later stages becomes a cancer cell hijacked mechanism to support further tumor ...
Cell death activity regulation in inflammation and cancer Ghent University
The project aims at a global and integrated approach of the 4 major types of cell death (apoptosis, necrosis, autophagic cell death, pyroptosis) on four levels: the biochemistry of caspases and RIP kinases, the intracellular signal transduction, the intercellular communication and its role in experimental diseaese models using transgenic animals. We will use global approaches involving shRNA, siRNA and miRNA screenings, interactomics, ...
The role of Tumor Micro-Environment in the pathogenesis and prognosis of EBV lymphomas: a study in human tumor biopsies and an novel Patient Derived Tumor Xenograft mouse model KU Leuven
For this PhD thesis we studied a set of rare B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs): immunomodulation related lymphoproliferative disorders (IARLPD) and primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) using both classical and novel pathology techniques. We are currently expanding upon this research with an ongoing project studying EBV+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (EBV+ DLBCL). All with the aim of aiding the correct implementation of ...
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 ...
The bidirectional link between tumor angiogenesis and immunity in melanoma brain metastases: potential synergy between anti-angiogenesis and immunotherapy Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Production of immunogenic tumor lysate loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles as anti-cancer vaccine KU Leuven
With cancer being a leading cause of mortality, immunotherapy is emerging as an innovative procedure to control the disease. It is a fast evolving complex field aiming to stimulate components of the immune system against tumor cells. One of these approaches is active specific immunotherapy based on the injection of autologous mature dendritic cells loaded with autologous tumor lysate. Proof-of-principle studies have shown that these vaccines ...