We are honored to welcome on Friday 12th of March at 11.30 AM, Dr. Evangelos Giampazolias (Francis Crick Institute, London, UK) for webinar entitled :
“Natural barriers of anti-cancer immunity: Unmasking cancer through self-deception”
BioSketch:
Evangelos Giampazolias received his Bsc from the department of Chemistry of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2009. He continued his studies and completed a 2-year Msc degree in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics at the department of Biology of the same university. In 2012, E. Giampazolias earned a 4-year fellowship from Cancer Research UK (CR-UK), to complete his Phd in Cancer Biology at CR-UK Beatson Institute, in Glasgow, under the supervision of Professor Stephen Tait. During that time, he focused on the molecular characterisation of a non- apoptotic form of cell death triggered under caspase inhibition (caspase-independent cell death, a.k.a. CICD) and its impact on anti-cancer immunity. His work demonstrated that under conditions of partial therapeutic response the engagement of CICD is more effective than apoptosis (dominant type of cell death triggered by anti-cancer therapies) in eradicating cancer in vivo in a manner requiring intact immunity and contributed to the notion that active inflammatory signalling within dying cells is a crucial determinant of cancer immunogenicity.
Since 2017, E. Giampazolias has joined the research group of Professor Caetano Reis e Sousa at the Francis Crick Institute in London, as Research Associate, where his research focuses on the local and distal mechanisms governing cancer recognition by innate immune sentinel cells.
Recently, he identified how novel elements of mouse and human physiology promote cancer immune escape by impairing the ability of type 1 conventional dendritic cell (cDC1) in recognising dying cancer cells and mounting effective CD8 T cell anti-tumour immune responses. E. Giampazolias was awarded the Institute of Cancer Sciences Prize (2017, University of Glasgow) and the prestigious Pontecorvo Prize (2018, CR-UK) for the outstanding contribution to scientific knowledge in his field.
His work output led to the initiation of a CR-UK- funded drug discovery programme based in Glasgow and a patent to explore the therapeutic potential of his findings as novel immunotherapies for cancers.
Selected publications:
- Mitochondrial permeabilization engages NF-κB-dependent anti-tumour activity under caspase deficiency. Giampazolias E, Zunino B, Dhayade S, Bock F, Cloix C, Cao K, Roca A, Lopez J, Ichim G, Proïcs E, Rubio-Patiño C, Fort L, Yatim N, Woodham E, Orozco S, Taraborrelli L, Peltzer N, Lecis D, Machesky L, Walczak H, Albert M, Milling S, Oberst A, Ricci JE, Ryan KM, Blyth K, Tait SW. Nature Cell Biology, 2017 August; 19 (9): 1116– 1129
- Caspase-independent cell death: an anti-cancer double-whammy. Giampazolias E, Tait SW. Cell Cycle, 2017, November; 17 (3): 269–270
- Mitochondria and the hallmarks of cancer. Giampazolias E, Tait SW. FEBS Journal, 2016 March; 283(5): 803-14