Student receives grant to develop new cancer immunotherapies

Catarina Azevedo, a student on the Doctoral Program in Biomedicine at ICBAS, who is developing research in the “Immunology, Cancer and Glycomedicine” group at i3S, and is being supervised by Salomé Pinho, won a travel grant from the Portuguese Society of Immunology (SPI) to undertake a two-month internship in Switzerland.

Catarina Azevedo's doctoral project focuses on “reprogramming the glycosylation of tumor-infiltrating T cells as a strategy to increase the efficacy of immunotherapies in cancer, particularly in colorectal cancer”. In the laboratory of researcher Heinz Läubli, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel, she explains that “I will have the opportunity to focus on immunotherapies for solid tumors, such as CAR-T cells, and evaluate the impact of glycosylation reprogramming on the function and ability of these cells to eliminate tumors more effectively”.

This internship, the doctoral student adds, “will allow me to explore innovative methodologies and take this strategy to a more translational level where we can apply and test the approach we have studied in CAR-T cells. This therapy has been used successfully in liquid tumors, but its effectiveness in solid tumors, such as colorectal cancer, is still limited”.

As a PhD student in the area of tumor immunology and glycoimmunology, Catarina Azevedo emphasizes, “it is an honor to see recognition of my work and the scientific research carried out in our group, by a highly prestigious institution, such as SPI”. For Catarina Azevedo, this scholarship represents “a motivating challenge and a driving force for the next steps” in her career as a researcher. Furthermore, she adds, “I will be able to share knowledge and promote networking in the area of cell therapies in an international context”.