Tumour Immunology

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Very often patients present at advanced stages of disease with tumor cell dissemination at distant organ sites, a process called metastasis. For many tumor entities an efficient curative therapy is still lacking. Tumour cells are subjected to immunosurveillance. Nevertheless, inflammatory cells and their secreted cytokines can promote tumour growth and metastasis. Our group aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms that underly the skewing of the immune system towards a pro-tumorigenic function. To this end, we not only apply different mouse models, but also use state-of-the art biochemical, cell biological, immunological and bioinformatic methods.