Autophagy in Immune Response: Impact on Cancer Immunotherapy

For more than 20 years Dr. Salem Chouaib has focused his research on killer cells and cell death; he first was interested in the differentiation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, then in the molecular basis of tumor resistance to the cytotoxic action of TNF. During the past ten years, Dr. Chouaib’s research was devoted to the influence of tumor microenvironment on stroma reactivity and tumor heterogeneity. His team was the first to establish the link between hypoxic stress and the acquisition of tumor resistance to cell-mediated cytotoxicity; they found in fact that autophagy was a potential pathway linking hypoxia to the acquisition of resistant phenotype including stemness and epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Dr. Chouaib has a wide knowledge of the killing mechanisms and the tumor resistance as well.