Cancer immunotherapy has benefited from the development of approaches that target T cells. In particular, immune checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive T-cell therapies including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are starting to transform the treatment of advanced cancers. However, despite recent successes, many patients with cancer fail to respond to these treatments.
Over the last years, we have improved our understanding of key negative and positive regulations of anti-tumoral immune cells. We have also investigated how a successful immune response can be induced to lead to tumor regression and demonstrated that T cells and activated tumor-associated macrophages can work cooperatively in regressing tumors.
Our objective is to propose new strategies aiming at increasing the efficacy of current cancer treatments. We take advantage of tools and expertise developed by the team including a preclinical model of tumor slices (link towards tissue slice page).
Our project is focused on three main aspects:
- Improving the migration and function of CAR T cells in solid tumors
- Deciphering the cooperative action of T cells and macrophages against the tumor
- Investigating the role of the epigenetic factor RINF in the regulation of immune cell functions and in the control of solid tumors