Single-cell profiling of tumor micro-environment dynamics during checkpoint immunotherapy.

The Laboratory for Translational Genetics (headed by Diether Lambrechts) aspires to tackle important questions in oncology by translating genome-scale data sets into clinically applicable knowledge. Our major focus is to characterize how the tumor micro-environment (TME) determines tumor behavior and response to anti-angiogenic and checkpoint immunotherapies, which are both frequently used in the clinic (alone or in combination). This exciting and actual research line bears a lot of translational potential, as managing the levels of hypoxia in solid tumors by anti-angiogenic strategies represents a major yet incompletely understood challenge, while the field of immunotherapy is rapidly expanding – yet desperately in need of biomarkers predicting clinical response. To tackle these research interests, the group is currently using the newest single-cell profiling technologies to study TMEs at the greatest detail.