A multidisciplinary approach to overcome highly immunosuppressive ovarian cancer

Recent studies by the group of Dr. Soenen have indicated cancer-selective toxicity of particular nanoparticle formulations (part of the ERC Starting Grant) and have shown that particular nanoparticles can activate macrophages. Here, Dr. Coosemans has developed and validated an ovarian cancer model that is highly immunosuppressive due to an imbalanced immune system and for which current therapies are insufficient. We aim to explore the possibility of the slowly degrading nanoparticles to induce immunogenic cell death (with Prof. Agostinis), while simultaneously looking into the interaction of the ovarian cancer cells with the innate immune system in zebrafish (with Prof. De Witte) and develop novel therapies to overcome the immunosuppression on a single cell level (with Prof. Vermeesch). Finally, the combination of the nanomaterials and the selected therapy will be tested with regard to their therapeutic efficacy and immune activation using state-of-the-art methods.

Keywords:immune therapy, nanomedicine, oncology, ovarian cancer, nanoparticles

Disciplines:Laboratory medicine, Palliative care and end-of-life care, Regenerative medicine, Other basic sciences, Other health sciences, Nursing, Other paramedical sciences, Other translational sciences, Other medical and health sciences, Medical imaging and therapy