World Cancer Day, 4 February
In-patient cell engineering to upgrade immune cells’ capacity to identify and destroy cancer cells is the challenge taken on by the Walloon startup Esobiotec, founded by Jean-Pierre Latere, and two VUB researchers and their teams: Nick Devoogdt from the Medical Imaging department (MIMA) and Karine Breckpot from the the Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Therapy (LMCT).The immune system can recognize cancer cells as these express unique proteins (tumor antigens). These antigens serve as an ’ID’ for T cells, immune cells with their own unique proteins (receptors) that scan the ’ID’ of cells. This knowledge led to the use of T cells in cancer immunotherapy. ...
