Publications related to Systematic screening of viral and human genetic variation identifies antiretroviral resistance and immune escape link

Exploring the role of cGAS-STING-mediated inflammation in age-associated neurodegeneration and antitumor immunity

Inflammation stands as a dynamic and intricate biological process, promoting vital defence mechanisms against harmful stimuli, including infections and injuries, to drive pathogen clearance and healing. On one hand, these responses can manifest acutely and ...

EPFL2024

Exploration and modulation of mechanical cues for enhanced cancer immunotherapy

Armand Kurum

The advent of immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and adoptive transfer of cytotoxic lymphocytes, has transformed the clinical care of cancer. However, a significant proportion of patients are resistant to immunotherapy or experience re ...

EPFL2024

Cytokine-armed dendritic cell progenitors for antigen-agnostic cancer immunotherapy

Ali Ghasemi

Dendritic cells (DCs) are specialized myeloid cells with the ability to uptake, process, and present antigens to T lymphocytes. They also generate cytokine and chemokine gradients that regulate immune cell trafficking, activation, and function. Monocyte-de ...

EPFL2024

Machine learning predictions of MHC-II specificities reveal alternative binding mode of class II epitopes

Julien Racle, David Gfeller, Philippe Guillaume Coune, Florence Pojer, Marta Andreia Da Silva Perez, George Coukos, Kelvin Ka Ching Lau, Amédé Noredine Larabi, Alexandre Harari

CD4+T cells orchestrate the adaptive immune response against pathogens and cancer by recognizing epitopes presented on class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) molecules. The high polymorphism of MHC-II genes represents an important hurdle toward ...

CELL PRESS2023

Direct In Vivo Activation of T Cells with Nanosized Immunofilaments Inhibits Tumor Growth and Metastasis

Bart Deplancke, Jorieke Weiden, Guido Van Mierlo

Adoptive T cell therapyhas successfully been implementedfor thetreatment of cancer. Nevertheless, ex vivo expansion of T cells byartificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) remains cumbersome andcan compromise T cell functionality, thereby limiting their t ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Exploring the interplay of molecular pattern and valency for selective interactions at the bio-interface

Kaltrina Paloja

Cell-cell communication is fundamental for immune balance. Multivalent interactions of surface receptors at immune interfaces drive specific communication, with stimulatory and inhibitory signals guiding the immune outcome. Notably, the valency, affinity, ...

EPFL2023

Development of a novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) for its use in Natural Killer (NK) cells for cancer treatment and beyond

Angela Madurga Alonso

The use of CAR technologies has revolutionized cancer treatment. Their unprecedented efficacy against B cell malignancies has opened the doors for a lot of excitement and research in the field. These synthetic receptors are composed of an antigen recogniti ...

EPFL2023

The HLA-B*57:01 allele corresponds to a very large MHC haploblock likely explaining its massive effect for HIV-1 elite control

Jacques Fellay

Introduction: We have reanalyzed the genomic data of the International Collaboration for the Genomics of HIV (ICGH), centering on HIV-1 Elite Controllers.Methods: We performed a genome-wide Association Study comparing 543 HIV Elite Controllers with 3,272 u ...

Frontiers Media Sa2023

Unlocking Hidden Potential: Exploring the Complexities of Signaling in Immune Cell Activation to Optimize CAR Therapy

Mathieu Girardin

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are synthetic, transmembrane proteins that trigger immune cell signaling following their engagement. They have been first utilized in T cells and later in natural killer (NK) cells to redirect their cytotoxicity toward a s ...

EPFL2023

Multivalent Virucidal Antivirals: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Action, and Immune-stimulating Effects

Yong Zhu

Viruses initiate invasion by binding to cell surface glycoproteins. Materials mimicking the carbohydrate motifs of these glycoproteins, such as heparan sulfate (HS) and sialic acid (SA) can block viral attachment and inhibit the infection. Multivalent disp ...

EPFL2023

Balancing the Nanoscale Organization in Multivalent Materials for Functional Inhibition of the Programmed Death-1 Immune Checkpoint

Kaltrina Paloja, Maartje Martina Cornelia Bastings, Jorieke Weiden

Dendritic cells (DCs) regulate immune priming by expressing programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and PD-L2, which interact with the inhibitory receptor PD-1 on activated T cells. PD-1 signaling regulates T cell effector functions and limits autoimmunity. Tumo ...

Amer Chemical Soc2023

Engineering Hydrogel-coated Neural Interfaces for Chronic Deep Brain Recording

Noaf Salah Ali Alwahab

Implanted brain electrodes provide a unique way of electrically interfacing with individual neurons in vivo. However, chronic recording or stimulating capabilities of neural implants are often impaired by a strong immune response resulting in a fibrous sca ...

EPFL2023

Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy to control malignant pleural mesothelioma

Yameng Hao

OBJECTIVE: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare disease that has a poor response to conventional therapy. Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITOC), a treatment combining fever-range hyperthermia with intrapleural cisplatin chemotherapy, ha ...

EPFL2023

Mechanism of KRAS-driven T cell infiltration in colorectal cancer

Amber Dawn Bowler

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Early-stage disease can be detected with preventative medical screening and is treatable with surgical resection. Sixty-percent of patients, however, are diagnosed with advanced-stage ...

EPFL2023

The interplay between human genetic variation, chronic inflammation and persistent infection: relevance for cardiovascular morbidity

Flavia Aurelia Shoko Hodel

Contemporary genomic approaches allow us to seek answers to biological questions that were previously out of reach. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous genetic polymorphisms associated with human diseases, providing new insight ...

EPFL2022

Computational design of vaccine immunogens

Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Andreas Scheck, Karla Montserrat Castro Gilabert, Shuhao Xiao

Computational protein engineering has enabled the rational design of customized proteins, which has propelled both sequence-based and structure-based immunogen engineering and delivery. By discerning antigenic determinants of viral pathogens, computational ...

CURRENT BIOLOGY LTD2022

BCG hydrogel promotes CTSS-mediated antigen processing and presentation, thereby suppressing metastasis and prolonging survival in melanoma

Li Tang, Bing Feng, Thomas Gruber

Background The use of intralesional Mycobacterium bovis BCG (intralesional live BCG) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma resulted in regression of directly injected, and occasionally of distal lesions. However, intralesional-BCG is less effective in p ...

BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP2022

Protein Engineering for Personalized therapy and diagnosis

Lixia Wei

Protein Engineering, especially protein post-translational modification (PTM), ex-tends proteomes in a more complex way than one can expect from analysis of their encod-ing genomes. It can activate or deactivate certain catalytic functions, add new desired ...

EPFL2022

Type 1 piliated uropathogenic Escherichia coli hijack the host immune response by binding to CD14

Kathrin Tomasek

A key attribute of persistent or recurring bacterial infections is the ability of the pathogen to evade the host's immune response. Many Enterobacteriaceae express type 1 pili, a pre-adapted virulence trait, to invade host epithelial cells and establish pe ...

eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD2022

How Vibrio cholerae adapts to the environment: from cell shape transitions to antagonistic behavior

Leonardo Filipe Lemos Rocha

The bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of the diarrheal disease cholera, which affects millions of people every year. Apart from being a human pathogen, V. cholerae is also a common member of aquatic habitats. Whilst the mechanism that allow ...

EPFL2022