dr. Marlies Ballegeer (PhD)
Staff Scientist - Nico Callewaert lab - UGent Faculty of Science - VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology
Principal investigator: prof. Nico Callewaert (PhD)
Research focus
CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized the treatment and prognosis of hematologic tumors, achieving remarkable results in certain blood cancers. Today, seven CAR-T cell products have been approved by FDA. In contrast, there are no FDA-approved CAR-T cells for solid tumors. The main reason is that these solid tumors create a highly suppressive environment that weakens the immune system. This environment makes it difficult for CAR T cells to attack the cancer effectively and often causes only a small number of CAR T cells to survive long term. Those that remain are frequently worn out and less able to fight the disease. In our research team, we study the role of human T cell glycosylation since these glycans are known to be implicated in T cell functions like activation, differentiation and proliferation. Mutations/deletions in specific glycosylation pathways in CAR-T cells are induced using CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering and the behavior of these altered CAR-T cells is characterized in vitro and in vivo.
Biography
- Master in Biomedical Sciences (2011)
- PhD in Science in the lab of prof. dr. Claude Libert (2011-2016)
- Post-doctoral Researcher in the lab of prof. dr. Xavier Saelens (2017-2023)
- Senior Scientist at Dualyx NV (2023-2024)
- Staff Scientist in the lab of prof. dr. Nico Callewaert (2025-present)