Dear All

it is a pleasure to inform you that Thursday 22 Sept, 3pm, CN we will host dr. Roger Geiger, a guest speaker invited by dr. Tomasz Wypych.

Dr. Geiger is a group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Dr. Geiger will give a lecture entitled: Systems Analyses of anti-Tumor T cell Responses

Abstract

I am excited to share an overview of our laboratory’s activity, which is focused on engineering new approaches for immunotherapy. In the first project, we analyzed protein turnover in naïve T cells and obtained new insights into how T cells maintain a prepared state to mount rapid immune responses. In another project, we performed metabolomic profiling on T cells, which led to the finding that the amino acid L-arginine enhances anti-tumor effector functions of T cells. To locally increase L-arginine concentrations in tumors, we engineered a probiotic bacterial strain that converts ammonia, a metabolic waste product that accumulates in tumors, into L-arginine. These bacteria colonize tumors, increase local L-arginine concentrations, and have synergistic therapeutic efficacy with PD-L1 blocking antibodies. In a third project, we analyzed proteomes of T cells and macrophages from tumors of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and identified new targets for immunotherapy.

Bio sketch

Roger Geiger obtained his Master’s and PhD degrees from ETH Zürich. During his PhD studies with Ari Helenius, Roger studied how non-enveloped viruses penetrate the host cell membrane. He then joined the laboratory of Antonio Lanzavecchia at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) as a SystemsX postdoctoral fellow. His research focused on metabolic regulation of T cell responses. In 2016, Roger joined the research group of Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich and received training in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. In 2017, Roger started his iindependent research group at the IRB with the goal to study immune responses to tumors using systems biology approaches. He is Assistant Professor at USI, a recipient of an ERC Starting grant (2019) and EMBO Young Investigator (2021).

The lecture will be followed by a get together reception as usual.

Aleksandra Pękowska