dr. Robrecht De Vos (MD)
Doctoral Fellow – Department of diagnostic sciences- UGent
Dr. assistant in clinical practice – Department of internal medicine and pediatrics – UGent/UZGent
Principal investigator: prof. Bart Vandekerckhove (MD, PhD)
Research focus
Adoptive chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy seems to be remarkably effective for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). CD19 CAR T cells eradicate late stage leukemia in 70–90% of treated patients. This strategy uses synthetic chimeric receptors introduced in T cells consisting of a single chain variable fragment (scFv) derived from a monoclonal antibody to recognize specific antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells and an intracellular part containing (co)stimulatory signals derived from CD3ζ, CD28 and/or 4_1BB. However, the success rate in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) remains disappointing.
One of the major challenges associated with this disease lies in identifying a suitable target antigen, given its heterogeneity. CD70 stands out as a potentially excellent target antigen for both AML and CTCL. CD70 is minimally expressed on normal hematopoietic cells but appears aberrantly on AML and CTCL cells. Our team has already developed a highly promising CAR-T therapy targeting CD70. The aim of my research is to investigate whether CD70 is a suitable target for CAR-T cell therapy in the context of AML and CTCL.
Biography
- Master of Medicine in Medicine
- Master of Medicine in Specialist Medicine (Internal Medicine) – 4th year attending
Contact & links
- Lab address: campus UZ Gent, MRB2 (entrance 38), Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent
- Robrecht De Vos is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks