“Thinking about new therapies, that’s my favorite thing to do. And that’s what I did during my PhD research. I investigated how tumor cells manage to avoid our immune cells. This could explain why immunotherapy, a relatively new treatment option in which our own immune systems are activated to attack the tumor, doesn’t always work. Many tumor cells appear to transmit a signal to the immune cells, preventing the immune system from recognizing and destroying them. It’s like they tell the immune cells: ‘please don’t eat me’. Our group discovered which protein is responsible for its regulation, and how we could potentially inhibit this signal by intervening with this protein. If that works, we expect that the tumor cells will be recognized and removed. I now work in Boston, at Third Rock Venues – an American think tank trying to translate fundamental research results into concrete treatment for patients.”
Meike will defend her thesis on May 31.
This research was financially supported by ERC and Oncode.
Read more about this research