Cell-based Cancer Immunotherapy

Prof. Abhishek D. Garg is currently Assistant Professor at Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine (KU Leuven, Belgium) and head of the Laboratory for Cell Stress & Immunity also at KU Leuven. Dr. Garg did his post-doctoral training at KU Leuven, combined with research visitations at University of Helsinki, Finland, and De Duve Institute, Belgium, after receiving his PhD from KU Leuven. During his PhD-postdoc stints, Dr. Garg played an instrumental role in elucidating novel mechanisms that make cancer cell death immunogenic in the context of anticancer therapy. He worked on uncovering the links between endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy, apoptosis/necroptosis, and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) or danger signals in dying cancer cells. This work resulted in creation of innovative dendritic cell (DC) vaccines against glioblastoma. His lab focuses on applying novel reverse translational approaches (i.e. human data to pre-clinical validation) to create innovative immunotherapy or biomarker solutions against hard-to-treat immunotherapy resistant tumors and eventually pave way for the forward translation of these solutions toward the clinic. His lab is working closely with oncologists (at home & abroad) for translation toward early-stage clinical trials. His >100 publications have been cited >20,000 times (h-index >50). He has delivered >40 lectures at various (inter)national conferences or institutional/company seminars. Dr. Garg’s contributions have been recognized by the 41st Prix Galien award for Pharmacological Research (Belgium, 2023), KU Leuven Research Council Award (2016), European Society of Photobiology (ESP) Young Investigator Award (2013), and FWO-McKinsey & Company Scientific Prize (2012).

Lorenzo Galluzzi is Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Weill Cornell Medical College, Honorary Assistant Professor Adjunct with the Department of Dermatology of the Yale School of Medicine, Honorary Associate Professor with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris, and Faculty Member with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara, the Graduate School of Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova, and the Graduate School of Network Oncology and Precision Medicine of the University of Rome “La Sapienza. Moreover, he is Associate Director of the European Academy for Tumor Immunology and Founding Member of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology.Galluzzi is best known for major experimental and conceptual contributions to the fields of cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism and tumor immunology. He has published over 450 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and is the Editor-in-Chief of four journals:OncoImmunology (which he co-founded in 2011), International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology, Methods in Cell biology, and Molecular and Cellular Oncology (which he co-founded in 2013). Additionally, he serves as Founding Editor for Microbial Cell and Cell Stress, and Associate Editor for Cell Death and Disease, Pharmacological Research and iScience.