Prof. Dr. Femke van Wijk

Bio:

Prof. Dr. Femke van Wijk was trained in immunology at the lab of Prof. Berent Prakken at the UMC Utrecht and the La jolla Institute for Immunology in the USA. Currently, she is a full professor and research group leader at the Center for translational immunology (CTI) at UMC Utrecht. Her research group focuses on tissue T cell responses in health and inflammation, and how to translate these insights into tools for (pre-clinical) disease monitoring and therapeutic targeting in chronic inflammatory diseases. In 2021 she received a ZonMw VICI grant for her work on naïve T cell imprinting and immune development. More recently, prof. van Wijk won the NWO Athena award (2023) for being a female researcher who inspires and encourages many young researchers from everywhere in the world. 

Title: ADventures in Survival: How Atopic Dermatitis Went from Zero to Hero in the Pharma World

I will present an overview of our translational research in atopic dermatitis (AD), a field that has recently gained significant attention with the introduction of new treatments, including biologics and JAK inhibitors. Our work bridges clinical questions and laboratory science, focusing on providing a biological basis for tapering biologics, investigating the mechanisms behind drug efficacy and side effects, and exploring the potential for disease modification through epigenetic changes. Historically, AD was an underfunded and unpopular research area, but with the development of new therapies and the establishment of the world’s largest AD registry coupled to a biobank, we now attract substantial interest and funding from amongst others pharmaceutical companies. This links to the ‘battle for survival’ faced by researchers in the competitive science landscape, where success often hinges on external factors. Is it possible to shape a more sustainable future for science?

Dr. Corine Geurts van Kessel

Bio:

Dr Corine Geurts van Kessel obtained her medical degree at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2004. In 2009, she achieved her PhD at the departments of Virology and Pulmonary Medicine, on the role of dendritic cell subsets in influenzavirus immunity. After her training as a clinical microbiologist at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam she works as a clinical microbiologist/virologist at the department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC since 2014. Here, she performs expert consultations for patients of the Erasmus MC and for other hospitals within and outside the Netherlands. She leads the diagnostic laboratories of serology and virus culture, and is a member of the WHO reference laboratory of viral hemorrhagic fever, arboviruses and emerging viruses.  She has a specific (research) interest in filling the knowledge gaps in disease kinetics, immunity and diagnostics of (emerging) zoonotic infections. 

Title: Understanding the immune response against Rabies: a battle for survival

Rabies encephalitis is caused by lyssaviruses including rabies virus (RABV) and is transmitted through a bite or a scratch of an infected animal. Once clinical symptoms of rabies occur, the outcome is always fatal. Rabies virus is a thereby a true manipulator of the immune system; it is remarkable that during the course of disease, patients do not develop RABV specific immunity, despite the exposure of innate immune cells to RABV early after infection.

The only effective post-exposure treatment currently consists of RABV specific immunoglobulins and vaccination immediately after infection. This treatment is expensive, scarce and not always available in endemic areas. In order to identify novel targets for early treatment strategies, it is essential to understand why RABV does not trigger immune activation.

Dr. Chella K. Vadivel

Bio:

Chella Krishna Vadivel moved from India to Copenhagen back in 2017 to pursue his Master’s degree in Immunology at the University of Copenhagen. After graduating, he continued to do a PhD in the LEO Foundation Skin Research Center (SIC), University of Copenhagen, where he investigated the link between Staphylococcus aureus infections and drug resistance mechanisms in Cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL). During this time, he also went to UC Irvine, California, as a visiting scholar (2023) and finally obtained his PhD in the beginning of 2024. Now, Chella is working as a Postdoc in the LEO Foundation Skin Research Center on a similar topic as his PhD, diving into the complex interactions between bacteria and malignant T cells in CTCL. 

Title: Staphylococcus aureus: The “master manipulator” in Cutaneous T cell Lymphoma

Cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a rare hematological cancer where malignant T cells affect the skin. Patients with CTCL are prone to skin infections such as Staphylococcus aureus which can be fatal. Staphylococcus aureus are opportunistic bacteria which produces toxins like superantigens that can activate a plethora of T cells. Our studies have shown that superantigens can promote growth of malignant T cells leading to malignant inflammation in CTCL. Clinical trials by our group showed that the antibiotic treatment in CTCL patients reduced malignant cells and dampened the disease activity in patients (Lindahl et al Blood 2019). In a very recent study, we tried to understand why elimination of bacteria by antibiotics helped CTCL patients. Our results showed that superantigens from the bacteria can rescue malignant cells from death induced by drugs used in the CTCL treatment highlighting that bacteria promote cancer-drug resistance in malignant cells (Vadivel et al Blood 2024).

Prof. Dr. Luigi Naldini

Bio:

Luigi Naldini, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology and Gene and Cell Therapy at San Raffaele University School of Medicine. He is also the Scientific Director of San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (Milan, Italy) and member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Also, he used to be President of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT). For the past 25 years he has pioneered the development and application of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy, which have become one of the most widely used tools in biomedical research. Throughout his career, he has continued to investigate and envision new strategies to overcome the major hurdles for safe and effective gene transfer. Strategies that are not only being translated into new therapeutic approaches for genetic disease and cancer, but also allowed for novel insights into hematopoietic stem cell function, induction of immunological tolerance, and tumor angiogenesis. Remarkably, he has published over 300 scientific papers and he is co-founder of three innovative biotech start-up companies: Genenta, Epsilen Bio and Genespire. 

Title: Reprogramming the Suppressive Tumor Microenvironment to Enable Protective Cancer Immunity by Targeted Gene Delivery of Stimulatory Cytokines

The success of cellular immunotherapy strategies, such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cells (CAR-Ts) is substantially limited in solid tumors, mostly due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). While stimulatory cytokines can counteract immune-suppression, their systemic administration entails risk of toxicities and counter-regulatory responses. To safely deliver cytokines at the tumor site, we established a gene therapy strategy leveraging on a population of tumor-associated TIE2-expressing monocytes/macrophages (TEMs) as vehicles. Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells are engineered with lentiviral vectors designed to express the cytokine selectively in their TEM progeny. This strategy allowed TME-targeted cytokine delivery and anti-tumor responses in different tumor models and is under clinical testing in a Phase 1/2a trial in unmethylated glioblastoma (GBM) sponsored by Genenta Sciences. Current clinical findings show tolerability and safety, dose-dependent engraftment of engineered cells, targeted interferon activity and immune reprogramming of the TME. To investigate whether the reprogrammed TME could also favor CAR-T function, we generated B7H3-directed mouse CAR-Ts and tested them in the GBM model. While CAR-Ts alone showed poor activity, their combination with IFN gene therapy achieved synergistic anti-tumor activity, by rescuing an effector phenotype and decreasing their exhaustion and engaging an endogenous T cell response spreading to tumor-associated antigens beyond B7-H3, significantly prolonging mice survival. These data suggest that the combination of the two gene and cell therapy strategies described here, which are already under clinical testing as monotherapies, could achieve synergistic effects also in GBM patients.

Dr. Jakko van Ingen

Bio:

Jakko van Ingen, MD, PhD, is a consultant clinical microbiologist and head of the mycobacteriology reference laboratory at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He trained at Radboud university medical center and at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. Jakko has authored over 250 papers on mycobacterial disease in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is consulted on diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial disease from all over the world. His research group focuses on the pharmacodynamics of antimycobacterial drugs and bacteriophage studies for the development of new treatment regimens for tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. 

Title: Ending the tuberculosis epidemic with a virus…? 

Tuberculosis has returned as the most lethal infectious disease worldwide, with over a million deaths annually. New drugs have been developed but resistance to these drugs is already emerging. Bacteriophages are viruses capable of infecting and hijacking (myco)bacteria, which they use for reproduction and then kill – true master manipulators! Bacteriophages are now being explored as a new way to treat tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections, but a lot of hurdles need to be overcome. In this session we will discuss the exciting prospect of phage therapy for tuberculosis and other bacterial infectinons, without losing sight of the significant hurdles that still need to be addressed. 

Dr. Iosifina Foskolou

Bio:

Iosifina Foskolou, PhD, is a group leader at Sanquin Institute (Amsterdam), specialising in T cell metabolism and cancer immunotherapy. Her lab focuses on improving T cell immunotherapies against solid tumours by better understanding the environments immune cells face in both the tumour microenvironment and lymphoid tissues. Dr Foskolou did her PhD in Oncology at the University of Oxford (UK), where she studied the effects of low oxygen (hypoxia) in solid tumours. She has extensive postdoctoral experience at both Cambridge University (UK) and the Karolinska Institute (SE), where she investigated how metabolism can improve cancer immunotherapy. Dr Foskolou has a robust academic background, and her work has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals, with key papers on T cell function, metabolism, and anti-tumour immunity. Throughout her career, she has been granted numerous grants, including a Marie Sklodowska Curie post-doctoral Fellowship. 

Title: The Hypoxia Paradox: Friend or Foe for T cell Cancer Therapies?

This talk will explore the critical role of oxygen in regulating immune cell functions. T cells encounter varying oxygen levels during circulation, often in low-oxygen (hypoxic) environments, such as lymphoid tissues and solid tumours. Despite hypoxia’s significant impact on T cell function, its role in shaping T cell responses remains underexplored. Our recent research shows that hypoxia and hypoxia-induced metabolites can influence T cell differentiation and enhance the effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapies against tumours. This presentation will delve into some mechanisms by which hypoxia and hypoxia-induced metabolites exert their effects. We will highlight how optimising the culturing conditions of CAR-T cells can improve their persistence in targeting soluble and solid tumours. Gaining a better understanding of these mechanisms could lead to the development of enhanced CAR-T cells, offering new strategies for advancing cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Ozlem Bulut

Bio:

Ozlem Bulut is a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud UMC Nijmegen. She completed her PhD on immune aging and the implications of BCG vaccination to overcome it. Ozlem’s current postdoctoral research continues to explore immune aging, focusing on its role in cardiovascular and metabolic health. Besides her primary research, together with Jorge Dominguez-Andres and Mihai Netea in collaboration with the German Aerospace Agency, she is exploring the impact of extraterrestrial environments on common microorganisms and how this influences immune recognition and response. Beyond research, Ozlem is particularly passionate about science communication and aims to pursue a career in this direction. 

Title: The Martian Chronicles: Bacteria’s Version

As humanity plans to explore or even settle on celestial bodies like the Moon and Mars, we’re faced with some critical health-related questions overlooked in space exploration: What will happen to the trillions of bacteria living on and inside us once we’re there? Can they survive and adapt to those harsh environments? If so, would they turn on us and cause disease? This talk will explore commensal bacteria’s fascinating ability to survive and adapt in a simulated Martian environment and how the human immune system reacts differently to the Mars-adapted bacteria.