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Technician |
I completed my studies in Life Sciences and worked on the development of CAR-T cells during both my bachelor’s and master’s thesis. Being a member of the Hi-TIDe has given me the opportunity to continue working in the field of gene therapy with the aim of curing different types of cancer.
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Research associate CONTACT ME |
Research interest
My research interests are in the development of function and safety enhanced ON/OFF-switch CARs as well as the optimization of gene-engineering strategies such as by CRISPR-Cas9 for the clinical translation of tumor-directed T-cell products.
Background
I did my Master’s in Medical Biotechnology in Milan before undertaking a one-year internship at Texas Children’s hospital to learn about CAR-T cell technologies. On returning to Italy, I pursued a PhD in Immunology. I undertook my postdoctoral studies in Switzerland, in genomics and epigenetics, after which I took up my position as Research associate within the Hi-TIDe.
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PhD student CONTACT ME |
Research interest
In our group, we pursue innovative ways to improve TCR T cell therapy for clinical application. As a PhD student in the Hi-TIDe, my focus will be on improving the safety and efficacy of currently available therapeutic TCR T cell therapy.
Background
During my studies in Singapore, I became very interested in translational immunology. I pursued my passion for working in T cell immunotherapy at Duke-NUS medical school. During my research at Duke, I worked on developing a new generation of Armored TCR T cells for treating liver transplant patients with recurrent cancer.
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Technician CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I’ve always been interested in understanding how the immune system functions. I’m now glad to be part of a team working to find innovative techniques to fight cancer.
Background
I did my Bachelor’s in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland)and continued with a Master’s in Medical Biology – specialising in immunology and oncology, at the University of Lausanne.
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Postdoctoral researcher CONTACT ME |
Research interest
My research focus is on tumor immunology and synthetic biology strategies to harness the immune system to fight cancer. I am currently working on developing new gene-engineering strategies to enhance T cell immunotherapies for solid cancers.
Background
I have been working in the field of CAR T cell immunotherapy since 2014 when I first joined the CAR T cell team at the University College, London Cancer Institute as a Master’s student. I subsequently undertook my PhD at King’s College, London developing and validating a novel CAR T cell immunotherapy approach to specifically activate CAR T cells within the TME—an approach that can potentially open CAR T cell therapy to previously difficult-to-target solid tumors. I have been involved in various academia and industry CAR/TCR projects and I am fascinated to see the potential of these living immunotherapies to be used to efficiently treat cancer patients.
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Research associate CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I am currently working on the development of diverse approaches to establish novel T cell engineering and combinatorial strategies for improving personalized cancer immunotherapies targeting solid tumors.
Background
I am originally from Cyprus and completed my Bachelor’s in the Molecular biology and genetics department of the University of Thrace (Greece). I obtained my PhD from the University of Thrace and the University of Pennsylvania. During my PhD, I trained in the field of gene-engineering of primary human T cells with tumor-directed CARs and TCRs. Following my PhD, I undertook my postdoctoral training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research of the University of Lausanne. In the course of my postdoc, I developed universal and highly reproducible methods for gene-engineering of primary mouse T cells and I evaluated the potency of next generation CAR-T cells combined with several immunotherapeutic approaches in immunocompetent mice. I have been a Research associate within the Hi-TIDe since 2018.
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Technician CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I am interested in the constantly advancing field of cancer research and enjoy having an active technical support role in high-impact research and clinical translation. My focus is on lab management, training, animal welfare and the 3R’s for the in vivo studies carried out within the lab.
Background
I am a Registered Veterinary Technician and Registered Laboratory Animal Technician with CALAS/ACSAL in Canada. I began working in comparative biology and medicine in 2008 at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, eventually transitioning to University of Toronto in 2011. In 2014, I moved to the UK and worked for the Department of Agriculture at Newcastle University, then transitioned to managing the primate neuroscience surgical theatre in 2016. In 2019, I joined the Hi-TIDe as a Laboratory technician and Laboratory manager.
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Technician CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I am interested in the development of targeted therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
Background
My background is the fields of molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, immunology and animal experimentation. I completed my thesis in the Alzheimer and tauopathies group at the Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Research Centre in France. I subsequently worked in the Neuropathy and neuromodulation laboratory of Pr Nicole Déglon at the CHUV and the group of Dr Olivier Dormond in the Department of visceral Surgery. I joined the Hi-TIDe in 2021.
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Technician |
Research interest
I am part of the clinical translation team. My role is to help transition novel engineered T-cell strategies developed in the Hi-TIDe to the GMP facility for patient treatment.
Background
After graduating from Marseille Luminy, I worked in several labs in France covering broad fields of biology: genetics, development, metabolism and cellular biology. In Switzerland, I was part of the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences working in the field of diabetes and obesity before joining the T cell engineering group.
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Technician |
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Technician CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I am interested in the design of DNA constructs for in vitro/in vivo experiments as well as in the production of recombinant proteins (cytokines, decoys, mutants).
Background
My background is in molecular biology, biochemistry, structural biology. I gained my University Diploma in Technology in Bioengineering from the Université de Créteil (France) in 1998 and worked at the CNRS before joining the Hi-TIDe at the University of Lausanne in 2016.
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Postdoctoral researcher CONTACT ME |
Research interests
The focus of my research is the development of T cells engineered to express rationally optimised tumor-directed TCRs, as well as of novel safety strategies to prevent/control potential off-site, treatment-related toxicities in patients.
Background
After my Bachelor's in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece), I obtained my PhD on the generation of improved humanized mouse models for evaluating cancer immunotherapies within Hi-TIDe. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) in the group of Prs Zoete and Michielin, working under the supervision of Dr Irving within the Hi-TIDe.
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Technician (also in Coukos Lab) CONTACT ME |
Research interest
My expertise is in in-vivo, cellular and molecular biology. I am interested in the identification and validation of novel cancer immunotherapies and analysing immune infiltrate upon treatment of different tumor models.
Background
I previously worked for the Centre Georges-François Leclerc in Dijon (France) and joined the Hi-TIDe in 2018 as a laboratory technician.
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Technician |
Research interest
I joined the Hi-TIDe in 2021 to work on the development of engineered T cells for cancer immunotherapy.
Background
After completing my Master’s degree in Biological Engineering at the Polytech Clermont-Ferrand (France) in 2015, I joined Pr Jeffrey’s lab at Stanford University as a Research assistant. While at Stanford, I was involved in a collaboration with a start-up company called Vortex Biosciences and worked on validating Vortex CTC isolation technology. Subsequently, from 2017 to 2021, I was employed as a Research engineer and Scientific writer in the field of preclinical studies in immuno-oncology at Transcure Bioservices in France.
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Postdoctoral researcher CONTACT ME |
Research interest
I am interested in the study of fundamental immunology (especially immune cell physiology) and molecular biology, and to challenge (old) dogmas/paradigms. My research focus includes the exploration of basic chemical/physical properties (e.g. oxygen tensions, pH, redox), cell signalling, metabolism, and gene-engineering approaches linked to optimise immune responses.
Background
I completed my PhD, exploring how cysteine metabolism impacts immune response to transplantation, in 2011 at INSERM (France). I started a postdoc in 2012 at the University of Geneva to decipher how low oxygen fractions found in the tumor microenvironment impacts the anti-tumor CD8+ T-cell response. I joined the Hi-TIDe in 2016 with the aim of delineating how low pH/acidity disturbs the anti-tumor CD8+ T-cell response: the ultimate goal is to improve cancer immunotherapy efficacy by rendering CD8+ T cells resistant to acidity via gene engineering.
images (c) unsplash/ian schneider-tam/helena lopes
Melita IRVING
Group leader
Human integrated tumor immunology discovery engine (Hi-TIDe)
Department of oncology UNIL CHUV
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Lausanne
Phone +41 21 692 59 61
Fax +41 21 692 59 95
E-mail
Biopôle
Ch. des Boveresses 155
CH-1066 Epalinges
Switzerland