Irving Lab members

Technician CONTACT ME

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Technician CONTACT ME

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.

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.

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.

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.

Technician CONTACT ME

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.

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.