Fighting cancer: the best attack is a good defense

The interaction between the tumor and the immune system is a love-hate affair. During this talk, the nature of this interaction will be described with some description of the recent understanding. In the second part of the talk, some of the different therapeutic strategies developed will be described.

Cell and gene therapies (CGT) are 'living drugs' made from the own cells of a patient, curing from previously incurable diseases. Gene editing in immune cells and stem cells has already been applied in cancer, rare genetic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and will impact many other conditions. Unfortunately, despite spectacular results in the clinic, the development and production of CGT products are so complex and costly that they remain largely unaffordable and therefore inaccessible to the majority of eligible patients. More innovation is needed to overcome the many challenges that remain in making CGT a true revolution in medicine.

The brain is the most important organ of the body and throughout evolution it has developed brilliant protection mechanisms against toxins or microbes. However, this turns into an issue when a tumor appears in the brain, making usual cancer therapies fail against these malignancies. Because of that, effective, out-of-the-box treatments are needed as soon as possible for brain tumors. How can we find something powerful enough to stop cancer, and yet be sufficiently gentle to maintain the healthy brain working? In my PhD, I aim to reprogram the brain’s natural immune system to achieve a new treatment for brain cancer.