Mechanisms of lung cancer development: from tumor immunology to cellular metabolism
Event details
| Date | 01.04.2019 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Etienne Meylan |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
With approximately 1.8 million deaths each year, lung cancer has become the leading cause of cancer mortality in women and men worldwide. In the last fifteen years, great clinical progress has been made that offers new hope for patients, as exemplified by the advent of targeted therapies and more recently immunotherapies. Yet, current treatments only benefit a fraction of patients and rarely lead to a cure. To address the molecular and cellular mechanisms driving lung cancer growth and treatment resistance, my laboratory combines human tumor material, genetically-engineered mouse models, bioinformatics, and new research tools that we develop to manipulate both tumor cells and host cells. In this seminar, I will summarize our recent investigations and technology development in two intersecting major research areas: tumor immunology and cancer metabolism. First, in exploring tumor-infiltrating immune cells, we identified a population of neutrophils that promotes lung tumor progression as well as their resistance to immunotherapy. Second, in studying lung cancer metabolism, we found that tumor-associated neutrophils, similarly to lung tumor cells, upregulate the expression of high-affinity glucose transporters; this change rewires metabolic activity and fosters tumor growth. We are currently making use of the above findings to identify new pathways and vulnerabilities that could be exploited for simultaneously targeting tumor cells and non-cancerous, tumor-supporting neutrophils, with the ultimate goal to impact cancer growth and sensitize refractory tumors to immunotherapy.
Short bio:
Etienne Meylan received a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Lausanne in 2006, for his work on innate immunity performed in the laboratory of Jürg Tschopp. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at MIT, Cambridge USA. In 2011, he established his research laboratory at ISREC, as a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor and since 2013 as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor. His laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms that contribute to the development of lung cancer, with a particular focus on alterations of tumor immunology and metabolism. Understanding these crucial perturbations of tumors may lead to a better comprehension of this devastating disease and to new perspectives of treatment.
With approximately 1.8 million deaths each year, lung cancer has become the leading cause of cancer mortality in women and men worldwide. In the last fifteen years, great clinical progress has been made that offers new hope for patients, as exemplified by the advent of targeted therapies and more recently immunotherapies. Yet, current treatments only benefit a fraction of patients and rarely lead to a cure. To address the molecular and cellular mechanisms driving lung cancer growth and treatment resistance, my laboratory combines human tumor material, genetically-engineered mouse models, bioinformatics, and new research tools that we develop to manipulate both tumor cells and host cells. In this seminar, I will summarize our recent investigations and technology development in two intersecting major research areas: tumor immunology and cancer metabolism. First, in exploring tumor-infiltrating immune cells, we identified a population of neutrophils that promotes lung tumor progression as well as their resistance to immunotherapy. Second, in studying lung cancer metabolism, we found that tumor-associated neutrophils, similarly to lung tumor cells, upregulate the expression of high-affinity glucose transporters; this change rewires metabolic activity and fosters tumor growth. We are currently making use of the above findings to identify new pathways and vulnerabilities that could be exploited for simultaneously targeting tumor cells and non-cancerous, tumor-supporting neutrophils, with the ultimate goal to impact cancer growth and sensitize refractory tumors to immunotherapy.
Short bio:
Etienne Meylan received a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Lausanne in 2006, for his work on innate immunity performed in the laboratory of Jürg Tschopp. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at MIT, Cambridge USA. In 2011, he established his research laboratory at ISREC, as a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor and since 2013 as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor. His laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms that contribute to the development of lung cancer, with a particular focus on alterations of tumor immunology and metabolism. Understanding these crucial perturbations of tumors may lead to a better comprehension of this devastating disease and to new perspectives of treatment.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- SV Faculty
Contact
- Dr H. Hirling / M. Mary