Keynote speakers
Alexandra Flemming
Chief Editor
Nature Reviews Immunology
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Alexandra Flemming studied molecular biology at the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany. After carrying out a 1-year diploma-thesis in infectious immunology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, she returned to Germany for her doctoral studies with Prof. Michael Reth, Max-Planck Institute for Immunology, Freiburg. Alexandra received awards for her thesis on the role of the B‑cell signalling protein SLP‑65 in the malignant transformation of B‑cells, and carried on working on B‑cell signal transduction during her postdoctoral research as an EMBO fellow and Human Frontiers Science Programme fellow at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute. In early 2005, Alexandra started her career in publishing as an Associate Editor on Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. She joined Nature Reviews Immunology as Chief Editor in January 2017.
Zvika Granot
Principle investigator
The Hebrew University
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I did my pre-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Joseph Orly (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Life Sciences) where I studied mitochondrial proteolysis. When I graduated (2005) I started postdoctoral fellowship studying the biology of pancreatic beta-cells in the lab of Prof. Yuval Dor the Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University. In 2007 I joined the lab of Prof. Robert Benezra at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York for a second postdoctoral fellowship. In his lab I studied the initial events that precede metastatic seeding in the future site of metastasis. This study has led me to study the role neutrophils play in tumor growth and metastatic progression – a topic that is the main focus of my lab.
In 2012 joined the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem as an assistant professor. In my lab we study various aspects of neutrophil biology in cancer including: neutrophil heterogeneity, the mechanism of neutrophil cytotoxicity, the mode of tumor cell recognition by neutrophils and the possibilities of modifying neutrophil function for therapeutic purposes.
Jan Theys
Principle Investigator
Maastricht University
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Associate Professor Jan Theys graduated as Master in Bio-engineering in 1995 at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL, Belgium). Following the completion of his PhD at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology (Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium) in 2001, he joined Maastricht University (The Netherlands) and became one of the co-founders of Maastro lab. He has since then been working as postdoctoral fellow and was appointed Assistant and subsequently Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of the University of Maastricht. He is board member of the Dutch Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (NVGCT) and member of the International Committee within the American Society of Gene and Cell therapy (ASCGT).
Jan Theys has extensively published about his research (>55 publications, h-index 32) and has obtained funding from various (inter)national funding agencies (including ZonMW, KWF, EU, AICR and other agencies) and companies (Nutricia Research) as PI or co-PI. His main research interest centers around the importance of the tumor microenvironment with the goal to implement knowledge into innovative gene therapeutic approaches that allow better treatment. Main focus is on translational studies with live biotherapeutics employing bacterial vectors, metabolism and immunotherapy. In addition, he coordinates a variety of educational blocks within Maastricht University and is mentor for (bio)medical bachelor students.
