Group Geisberger

Working Group:
Tumor immunology

Supervisor: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Roland Geisberger

Immune cells not only protect us from invading bacterial and viral pathogens, but also combat tranformed malignant cancer cells. The subject of our tumor-immunology research is to decipher the mechanisms by which cancer cells succeed in circumventing clearance by the immune system or even exploit immune cells for tumor growth. In this context, CLL induces an exhausted T cell phenotype marked by Programmed Death 1 (PD!) expression in patients and in the Tcl1 mouse model, which is in the center of our research. Another focus of our group is the quest for the origin of malignant cells and the nature of the mutations underlying malignant transformation and clonal evolution of tumor cells. In this context, we are especially interested in APOBECs, a group of DNA-deaminating enzymes. APOBECs play a crucial role in the immune system but increasing evidence shows that they are also implicated in lymphomagenesis and clonal cancer evolution due to their DNA-damaging activity.

+ Antigen-presenting cells are able to internalize cancer cells, and to present parts of these cells on the cell surface. If these parts are recognized by naive T cells as “dangerous”, they mature into activated effector T cells which can eliminate all cancer cells. Expression of the molecule PD-L1 on the surface of cancer cells protects these cells from a T cell attack. A therapeutic intervention, for example, by a PD-L1 specific antibody makes the cancer cells again vulnerable to an immune attack and leads to a reduction in cancer cells.

Our laboratory mice are maintained at the central laboratory animal facility (ZTH) of the PLUS.

For more information please visit the hompage of the ZTH: https://www.plus.ac.at/zth

Projects

The LIMCR/SCRI is supported by a grant from Gilead Sciences GesmbH entitled “Inferring HLA-haplotypes from existing whole exome and RNA-sequencing datasets to predict neoantigen presentation and anti-CLL immunity”

Grant ID number 06813
Juli 2019

“Leukemic cells benefit from deactivating other immune cells. We study the underlying mechanisms and search for ways to reactivate the immune system to combat leukemia.”

Team

Priv-Doz. Dr. Roland Geisberger
(Supervisor)

Dr. Franz Gassner
(Post-Doc)

Dr. Ekaterina Akimova-Höpner
(Post-Doc)

Dominik Baumgartner, MSc
(PhD Student)

Philine Hoven, MSc
(PhD Student)

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