dr. Elien De Bousser (PhD)

Genomic engineering of T-cells is currently extensively exploited in the field of cancer immunotherapy. In this so-called CAR T cell therapy, the patient’s own immune cells are adapted to render them more potent as a therapy to treat cancer. Despite some great breakthroughs in this field in the last couple of years, improvements are necessary in both efficiency, specificity and safety. Attempts are being made to further engineer the immune cells in such a way that the cytotoxic activity towards tumor cells is enhanced.
Glycan structures decorating the T cell surface are implicated in T cell activation, differentiation, proliferation, and in the interaction of human T cells with tumor cells. In our project, a CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering method was developed to induce mutations in a specific glycosylation pathway in these T cells. Recently, we showed that with this single-gene intervention, we can enhance the potency and long-term efficacy of this CAR T cell therapy, in mouse models of both lymphoma, and solid tumors. This is a very difficult to achieve result with any other known CAR T manipulation, providing strong proof of concept that glycocalyx engineering of CAR T cells could be of general benefit to combat cancer.
 

• Human T cell glycosylation and implications on immune therapy for cancer. Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, 2020. (PMID: 32186959)
• T Cell Engaging Immunotherapies, Highlighting Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Therapy. Cancers. 2021. (PMID: 34885176)
• N-glycosylation engineering in chimeric antigen receptor T cells enhances anti-tumor activity. BioRxiv. 2023.
   

• Lab address: VIB Medical Biotechnology Center, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 75, 9052 Gent, Belgium
• Callewaert Lab  
• Center for Medical Biotechnology – VIB  
• Orcid
• LinkedIn  
• Elien De Bousser is interested to receive invitations for talks or presentations