Translational Immunoimaging & Cancer Immunotherapies

The success of strategies to induce antitumoral immune responses via checkpoint inhibition or adoptive T cells has led to a clinical paradigm shift in conventional cancer therapy. Despite advances in our understanding of immune cell biology and development of new drugs to modulate their behavior, only a subset of patients responds to these treatments. We develop and utilize novel imaging probes applicable for patient stratification, to elucidate early treatment responses and to implement rational combinatorial immunotherapy approaches. In particular, ImmunoPET provides a direct imaging strategy that combines positron emission tomography (PET) isotopes with targeting antibodies (Abs), engineered fragments, or small molecules capable of non-invasively monitoring expression of cancer and immune cell biomarkers. Our projects have a strong translational focus and linkage to the clinics, enabling us to immediately transfer preclinical findings into clinical application.

Current research projects:

-Imaging immune responses and immune cell activation

-Novel checkpoint inhibitor therapies (CD47/Sirp-alpha, B7-H3)

-CD19-ImmunoPET of lymphoma

-Molecular imaging with T cell targeting Minibodies (collaboration with ImaginAb)

-Development of novel Nanobodies for ImmunoImaging (collaboration with NMI Tübingen-Reutlingen)