Machine learning classifier accelerates the development of cellular immunotherapies

"To finance further development, we have founded the biotech start-up Tcelltech"

19-Mar-2024 - Making a personalised T cell therapy for cancer patients currently takes at least six months; scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim have shown that the laborious first step of identifying tumor-reactive T cell receptors for patients can ...

Transgenic T cells against malignant brain tumors

New form of therapy tested

29-Sep-2023 - Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim (UMM) successfully tested a new form of cellular immunotherapy against brain tumors in mice for the first time. Glioblastomas are the most aggressive of all brain tumors. They spread diffusely in ...

A protein on cancer cells supports immune response against tumors

Surprising discovery

19-Sep-2023 - Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) identify a new and surprising function of a membrane protein on the surface of cancer cells: It supports and stabilizes an important "co-stimulatory" factor that enhances the activation of T cells, thus improving the immune response against ...

High honor for pioneers of cancer immunotherapy

Meyenburg Prize goes to Katalin Karikó, Uǧur Șahin and Özlem Türeci

23-Mar-2023 - The Meyenburg Prize 2020/21, endowed with 100,000 €, goes to Katalin Karikó (University of Szeged and Pennsylvania), Özlem Türeci and Uǧur Șahin (BioNTech AG and Universitätsmedizin Mainz). The researchers receive the award for their outstanding contributions to the development of vaccines and ...

Moderate immune response is more effective against leukemia

While the working hypothesis so far has been mainly toactivate T cells as strong as possible, the current results refine this view

10-Dec-2021 - The development of immunotherapies against blood cancer could be more successful if T cells are activated moderately rather than excessively. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now been able to show this in mice: If the researchers blocked a cytokine that slows down the immune ...

Using T cells to target malignant brain tumors

"Here we have shown for the first time in an experimental model that a neoantigen-specific TCR-transgenic cell therapy can be effective against gliomas"

17-Nov-2021 - Doctors and scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and from Heidelberg University's Medical Faculty Mannheim have successfully tested a neoantigen-specific transgenic immune cell therapy for malignant brain tumors for the first time using an experimental model in mice. Cellular ...

Bridging antibodies plus enhancer can destroy breast cancer cells

16-Sep-2021 - Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have developed antibodies that have two antigen-binding sites and can couple cancer cells with effector cells of the immune system. In laboratory tests, these bridging antibodies, together with an enhancer ...

How “paralyzed” immune cells can be reactivated against brain tumors

28-May-2021 - Brain tumor cells with a certain common mutation reprogram invading immune cells. This leads to the paralysis of the body's immune defense against the tumor in the brain. Researchers from Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Freiburg discovered this mechanism and at the same time identified a way of ...

Engineering T cells for cancer therapy efficiently and safely

Innovative non-viral vector developed

21-Apr-2021 - Genetically enhancing a patient's immune cells by adding therapeutic genes to them outside the body is regarded as a promising new treatment approach in oncology. However, the production of these therapeutic cells using viruses is not only expensive but time-consuming. Researchers at the German ...

A potential new target for immunotherapies in cancer

Compounds that inhibit metabolic enzyme IL4I1 could open up new opportunities for cancer therapy

24-Aug-2020 - The metabolic enzyme IL4I1 (interleukin-4-induced-1) promotes the spread of tumor cells and suppresses the immune system. This was discovered by scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) together with colleagues from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. The enzyme is ...