Our current focus is to develop viral vector and cell therapeutic approaches for regenerative treatment of cancer and chronic infections. Dendritic cells (DCs) are blood cells that play fundamental role in the development and regeneration of immunity. DCs are often dysfunctional in cancer and chronic infections, and can be genetically reprogrammed. We are developing new modalities of lentiviral vectors in order to "reprogram" DC precursors in vitro and in vivo inducing disease-specific antigen-presenting cells.

In the past years, we have consolidated the proof-of principle that these genetically reprogrammed "SMART-DCs" can be produced in high numbers in just one day of ex vivo culture (compared to 7-10 days of conventional DCs), which drastically simplifies clinical development.

A major milestone to be achieved within the next 5 years is the clinical translation of "SMART-DCs" for treatment of melanoma. Preclinical development of SMART-DCs and engineered lentivirus are concurrently ongoing for leukemia and chronic hepatitis C immunotherapy. An emerging topic in our laboratory is lymphatic tissue engineering making use of SMART-DCs.

Our laboratory is currently funded by the DFG/ Rebirth (Reconstructive Biology for Regenerative Therapies) Excellence Cluster, DFG /Sonderforschungsbereich 738 (Innovative Therapies for Transplantation), Deutsche Jose Carreras Stiftung and Deutsche Krebshilfe.