Principal Investigator
Elena Catanzaro
Olivier De Wever
Research interests
The Cell Death Investigation and Therapy (CDIT) laboratory at Ghent University is dedicated to advancing our fundamental understanding of how different forms of regulated cell death can be harnessed to improve cancer treatment outcomes. The lab focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of immunogenic cell death (ICD) – a type of regulated cell death that not only kills cancer cells but also stimulates anti-tumor immune responses – and determining how these processes influence the effectiveness of anti-cancer immunotherapy.
Specifically, the laboratory is structured around three main research lines:
- Dissecting ICD modalities: Define how apoptosis, necroptosis, and ferroptosis generate danger signals that activate the immune system and exploit these mechanisms to design novel cell-based cancer immunotherapies, including dendritic cell vaccines to target tumors such as glioblastoma and melanoma.
- Tumor microenvironment (TME) and immune cross-talk: Investigate how the tumor microenvironment modulates the immunogenicity of dying cancer cells using advanced three-dimensional tumor spheroid and in vivo models, enabling a detailed study of interactions between tumor, TME, and immune cells.
- Therapeutic enhancement of ICD: Develop combinatorial strategies to amplify ICD, including photodynamic therapy, nano-/bio-material approaches, and the discovery of new photosensitizers to strengthen anti-tumor immune responses.
Collectively, these research topics aim to translate fundamental insights into innovative treatments that improve anti-tumor immunity, reduce relapse, and ultimately enhance patient survival.
Selected publications
- Vaccination with early ferroptotic cancer cells induces efficient antitumor immunity. Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, 2021 (PMID: 33188036)
- DC vaccines loaded with glioma cells killed by photodynamic therapy induce Th17 anti-tumor immunity and provide a four-gene signature for glioma prognosis. Cell Death and Disease, 2022 (PMID: 36539408)
- Immunogenic Cell Death and Role of Nanomaterials Serving as Therapeutic Vaccine for Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology, 2022 (PMID: 35844506)
- Perillaldehyde is a new ferroptosis inducer with a relevant clinical potential for acute myeloid leukemia therapy. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 2022 (PMID: 36800294)
- Immunogenicity of cell death and cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Cellular & Molecular Immunology, 2025 (PMID: 39653769)
