Fabian Bick

Malignant melanoma causes the majority of deaths related to skin cancer. While primary tumors can be removed well by surgery and usually patients look at full recovery, distant metastatic melanoma is a devastating diagnosis, usually associated with poor prognosis and a median survival of only 6-12 months until recently. Even though the use of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and cell-based therapies have already significantly improved the course of the disease, not all patients respond to those drugs, leaving behind a large cohort of patients with unmet medical need for novel therapies.
At the inflammation research center in Gent we study primary melanoma as well as metastatic melanoma and other cancers using relevant mouse models. Being also affiliated with the biotech company argenx, my work involves the generation of therapeutic antibodies against novel targets in cancer using their proprietary SIMPLETM Antibody Platform.
My focus lies on the characterization and evaluation of these therapeutic antibodies using relevant mouse models of melanoma and lung cancer to understand how novel therapies could be designed in the most effective way to trigger the immune system to kill the metastases. Like this, we hope to provide novel therapeutic approaches that can act as alternatives to current standard of care or act in concert with them.
 

• PhD candidate in Health Sciences, VIB-IRC UGhent/argenx BV, (2019 – current)
• Master of Science, Molecular and Applied Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University (2016-2019)
• Bachelor of Science, Biotechnology, FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences (2012-2016)
   

• Lab address: Center for Inflammation Research Unit of Immunoregulation and Mucosal Immunology, UGent-VIB Research Building FSVMI, Technologiepark 71, 9052 Ghent (Zwijnaarde)
• IRC-VIB Ghent  
• argenx BV  
• LinkedIn  
• ORCID 
• Fabian Bick is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks