Specialization
oncolytic immunotherapy, therapeutic target discovery, high-throughput functional genomic screening, cancer therapy development
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Focus of research
The ultimate goal of the applied research in my laboratory is to make new, more effective medicines available for treatment of cancer patients. Towards this goal, two main strategies are followed.
Therapeutic target discovery: We perform high-throughput functional genomic screens with RNAi libraries to identify vulnerabilities in cancer cells. Next, we use validated leads from completed screens to discover new anticancer drugs and to design new treatment strategies.
Oncolytic immunotherapy: We apply molecular knowledge of cancer and viruses to develop next-generation oncolytic adenoviruses for personalized therapeutic vaccination. These viruses replicate in and kill cancer cells selectively, thereby inducing an adaptive immune response against released tumor antigens. We focus on promoting lytic replication and counteracting immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment.