Abstract Book 2010 - CIMT Annual Meeting

2010 Speakers:
G. J. Adema
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical
Centre
Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences
(NCMLS)
Nijmegen, Nethterlands
Prof. Dr. Adema holds the chair in Molecular Immunology at
the NCMLS Department of Tumor Immunology. His research
mainly focuses on the molecular analysis of dendritic cells and
regulatory T cells, and their function in the immune system in
health and disease. The knowledge gathered in the fundamental
immunological studies is translated into pre-clinical and clinical
vaccination studies of cancer patients with autologous,
antigen-loaded dendritic cell vaccines.
James Allison
Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
New York, USA
James Allison has a longstanding interest the in the mechanisms
of T cell activation and its regulation, as well as developing
novel strategies for immunotherapy of cancer. He has made many
significant contributions to our understanding T cell costimulation
and inhibition, and conceived the notion of immunological
checkpoint blockade for the therapy of cancer. He is currently
the Chairman of the Immunology Program, Director of the Ludwig
Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, David H. Koch Chair in
Immunologic Studies, Attending Immunologist at the Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also an Investigator of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Member of the National
academy of Sciences, and of the Institute of Medicine.
Victor Appay
INSERM
Paris, France
Dr. Appay leads the HIV pathogenesis and Immunosenescence
group at the Institut National de la Santé et Recherche Médicale
(INSERM). His main research interest is exploring the factors
that govern the development and maintenance of effective
CD8+T cell responses in HIV infection using basic immunology.
The work of his team also focuses on the development with
progressive HIV disease of premature immunosenescence, or
immune ageing.
John Barrett
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, USA
John Barrett is Chief of the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute‘s Stem Cell Allotransplantation Section of the Hemato-
logy Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National
Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, USA. His research is directed
to defining the antigens involved in graft-versus-host disease,
graft-versus-leukemia and graft versus tumor immunity and
designing improved ways to reconstitute the immune system
after stem cell transplantation using technologies to selectively
eliminate harmful alloreactive T cells from the transplant while
conserving graft-versus-leukemia reactivity.
Philipp Beckhove
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
Heidelberg, Germany
PD. Dr. Philipp Beckhove leads an independent research group
at the German Cancer Research Center. The objective of Dr.
Beckhove’s research group „Translational Immunology“ is to
gain new insights into the immune defence system of cancerous
cells and to evolve the results from basic research through to
clinical treatments. The pursuit of which is based on close interdisciplinary
collaboration with the oncological departments of
the university hospital. New therapeutic concepts developed by
the research group are being “translated” into clinical application
under the roof of the National Center for Tumor Diseases
in Heidelberg (NCT).
J. S. Bromberg
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, USA
Prof. Dr. Bromberg has great experience in starting, building,
and reorganizing critical components of multiorgan transplant
programs. In addition to his clinical transplantation practice,
Prof. Bromberg is pursuing basic and clinical research involving
immunology and transplantation. His current projects are
focused on determination of key mechanisms in T cell homing
and tolerance induction, investigation of signals important for
induction and inhibition of Foxp3 expression in regulatory T
cells (Treg) as well as interaction of Tregs with other cells in
different disease models of autoimmunity.
Federica Cavallo
University of Torino
Torino, Italy
Federica Cavallo, PhD, is Associate Professor of Immunology
(General Pathology) of the University of Torino. She is among
the founders of the new Molecular Biotechnology Center (MBC)
of the University of Torino, where her laboratory is now located.
She has a successful experience in basic and translational cancer
immunotherapy, and has a considerable expertise in transgenic
mouse models of cancer and DNA vaccination. At present her
lab is combining immune regulators of various kind and vaccines
to prevent and cure autochthonous cancers in pre-clinical
models. A major effort is devoted to grab new knowledge on
tumor and microenvironment transcriptome from microarray
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