Leila Akkari: “It is a tremendous honor to be appointed professor. This recognition means a great deal to me, personally and scientifically, and I am incredibly grateful to the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, and Leiden University for this opportunity. This would never have been possible without my wonderful colleagues at these two collaborative institutes, the NKI and the LIC, and without my fantastic, talented lab members.”
Leila Akkari studies the way tumor cells and immune cells influence each other. The immune system should protect the body against cancer, but in many tumors, the disease corrupts a subset of immune cells. Her research revealed a crucial vulnerability in this process. Using advanced techniques, she demonstrated that specific immune cells in brain tumors feed cancer cells with repurposed nerve-cell material, allowing tumors to grow more aggressively. This discovery creates new possibilities for treating brain tumors and liver cancer. Akkari received the Ammodo Science Award for her innovative work earlier this year.
Leila Akkari’s scientific path has always focused on understanding the external signals that steer cancer behavior. She approaches cancer as a genetic disease as well as a dynamic system shaped by constant communication between cancer cells and their surrounding environment. Her multidisciplinary background in immunology, parasitology, virology and cancer biology, combined with her personal roots in Africa and the Middle East and her experience living in several countries, helped shape a research program that aims to harness the immune environment for improved anti-cancer therapies.