Postdoc

Postdoc for development of immunotherapy to be applied after haploidentical stem cell transplantation. Many patients succumb to opportunistic infections in the first year of treatment. The general purpose of this project is to faster regenerate the responsible T cell compartment of the immune system.

It concerns a Dutch cancer foundation subsidized project where the postdoc will collaborate with a PhD student and a technician. The aim is to generate in vitro immune competent T cells from CD34+ stem cells in a stroma cell free system under GMP conditions. The generated progenitor T cells will be injected into humanized mice and the mechanism of their thymus homing capcity will be elucidated. Furthermore the project comprises studies to further maturation of progenitors to adult T cells, including the use of retroviral transduction of antigen specifc T cell receptors. Finally, thymus rejuvination to better host injected progenitors will be investigated. In the project collaborations exist with groups in Zurich, Amsterdam and Yokohama and the possibility exists to carry out experiments in those locations.