PI: John Bridgeman (link to CV)

Institution: Immetacyte

Involvement in the project:
Providing secondment and training in culture and expansion of clinical grade T cells.

Website: http://www.immetacyte.com/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Michael Hudecek

Institution: University of Würzburg

Synopsis of research lines:
The international research group of Dr. Michael Hudecek is located at the Hospital of the University of Würzburg, Germany and consists of sixteen highly motivated Post-Docs, MDs, PhD students and technicians. Together their expertise covers the disciplines medicine, immunology and bio engineering. The group has gained an international reputation in the field of CAR T cells.

Website: http://hudeceklab.org/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Linda Wooldridge (link to CV)

Institution: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol

Synopsis of research lines:
The Wooldridge group is based in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol. Bristol is one of the most popular universities in the UK and was ranked within the top 50 universities in the world in the QS World University rankings 2016. The University has had a reputation for innovation and research since its founding in 1876. The Wooldridge group is located in the Biomedical Sciences building which houses a range of different expertise from immunology, cancer genetics, virology and biochemistry, which provides a very diverse interdisciplinary environment. In addition, the building is well equipped with state of the art technology such as imaging suites and polychromatic flow cytometry facility.
The Wooldridge group currently consists of two postdocs, three fellows and a PhD student. The group specializes in CD8 T cell immunology and uses state of the art technology to examine basic mechanisms of CD8 T cell activation and the role that CD8 T cells play in diseases such as multiple sclerosis and leukemia. In addition the group has a strong in interest in the expansion and engineering of CD8 T cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Website: http://www.wooldridgetcell.org/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Fernando Pastor Rodriguez (link to CV)

Institution: Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada

Synopsis of research lines:
Our laboratory works on the development of new aptamers with future biomedical applications. Aptamers can be used as therapeutic and diagnostic tools. Our research focuses primarily on the generation of aptamers with an ability to induce and potentiate the antitumor immune response. We have developed antagonist and agonist aptamers in order to model the function of a receptor, thereby inhibiting or activating it according to therapeutic needs. One of the most novel applications of this technology is the use of aptamers to carry a load in vivo to a target cell; the nature of said load may be anything from a chemotherapy agent to siRNA or even another aptamer.

Website: http://cima.unav.edu/en/investigacion/programas-transversales/terapias-moleculares/aptameros/equipo

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Marco Lindner (link to CV)

Institution: Stratec Consumables GMBH

Website: http://consumables.stratec.com

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Gerhard Schütz (link to CV)

Institution: Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien

Synopsis of research lines:
The biophysics group at the Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien, uses advanced high-resolution single molecule imaging as a means to measure the nanoscopic organization of the plasma membrane. In the last years, Prof. Schütz has focused his research towards a functional understanding of plasma membrane nanostructures during T cell activation. Currently, the group consists of 4 postdocs, 7 PhD students, and 1 technician. Four single molecule microscopy systems are available, which allow for imaging modes such as TIR excitation, high speed tracking (submilliseconds time resolution), multi-color microscopy, superresolution microscopy (PALM, STORM), and single molecule FRET on live cells.

Website: http://biophysics.iap.tuwien.ac.at

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Time-correlated appearance of localizations in superresolution microscopy images

PI: Johannes Huppa

Institution: Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Institute for Hygiene and Applied Immunology, Immune Recognition Unit, Medical University of Vienna

Website: https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/hai/arbeitsgruppen/molekulare-immunologie/huppa-lab/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Mirjam Heemskerk (link to CV)

Institution: Leiden University Medical Center

Synopsis of research lines:
The Heemskerk group has a long standing interest in using a “bedside to bench and back” approach to increased knowledge on antigen specific immunity after allogeneic stem cell transplantation and improving adoptive immunotherapy strategies for patients with hematological malignancies and solid tumors. In 2013 we started the first clinical TCR gene therapy study in the Netherlands for the treatment of high risk leukemia. In collaboration with Bellicum Pharmaceuticals we will initiate this year a clinical study in which patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia will be treated with PRAME-TCR engineered T cells. Several CAR and TCR gene therapy studies have demonstrated that engineering of T-lymphocytes with high affinity antigen receptors can overcome immune tolerance, and that these re-engineered T-cells demonstrate potent anti-tumor reactivity in cancer patients. The major hurdle however for TCR gene therapy is the limited number of potent tumor specific TCRs. To identify more clinically relevant TCRs for the treatment of both hematological as well as solid tumors, we have developed a high-throughput strategy in which we use the immunogenicity of allogeneic HLA molecules to selectively induce antitumor reactivity. This research builds on the fundamental insights gained on T cell immune responses towards non-self HLA molecules after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. From the HLA-mismatched T cell repertoire of healthy individuals we have now identified several TCRs with potent anti-tumor reactivity. Recently, we have identified a high affinity TCR directed against intracellular transcription factor BOB1. T cells expressing the BOB1-specific TCR efficiently lysed malignant B cells ranging from acute lymphoblastic leukemia to mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Potent antitumor reactivity was also demonstrated in a preclinical xenograft mouse model of established multiple myeloma, indicating that BOB1-specific TCRs can broaden immunotherapy to diseases such as multiple myeloma for which existing immunotherapeutic interventions are scarce.

Website: https://www.lumc.nl/org/hematologie/medewerkers/137416?setlanguage=English&setcountry=en

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PI: Hinrich Abken

Institution: Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology

Website: http://www.rcii.de/en/research/chairs/chair-for-genetic-immunotherapy/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

PI: Susana Minguet, Wolfgang Schamel (link to Minguet CV, link to Schamel CV)

Institution: University of Freiburg, Faculty of Biology, BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies

Synopsis of research lines:
Our group is based at the University of Freiburg (Germany), the capital of the black forest. We are located at BIOSS centre for Biological signalling studies, which houses experts ranging from immunology, cancer biology and synthetic biology to biochemistry or membrane nanobiology, providing thus a very diverse and multidisciplinary environment.
We aim to understand how T cells are activated by infected and tumor cells. Our main focus are the proteins, lipids and protein complexes that govern the very early steps of T cell activation, such as the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) and its associated signalling proteins. We are interested in the molecular mechanisms of early TCR activation and in applying this knowledge for treatments of human diseases. To this end, we employ biochemistry, synthetic biology, systems biology, mice models and primary cells from healthy human donors or patients.

Website: http://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/schamel-group/home/

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.