Lana Kandalaft

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor at UNIL, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine and an investigator at the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. My expertise encompasses clinical development, regulatory policies and translational research, with an emphasis on the translational development of cancer immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines, cell-based immunotherapy and genetically-modified cell therapy. My research laboratory explores immunotherapies for ovarian cancer, focusing on the development of novel strategies for dendritic cell personalized vaccines that can be evaluated in clinical trials. I also lead the Center of Experimental Therapeutics, an integrated structure of clinical services, manufacturing facilities and laboratory platforms in the Department of Oncology at the CHUV and the Swiss Cancer Center Lausanne. Previously, as the Director of Clinical Development and Operations of the Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, I played a central role in the development and implementation of cell-based and gene therapy clinical protocols. While there, I developed and submitted to the FDA several IND applications for investigator-initiated clinical trials, leading a team of research nurses and coordinators to manage the trials, and another responsible for the process development and production of cellular therapies. I have a PharmD and PhD in cell biology and drug delivery from The Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff, UK, and a Masters in Translational Research (MTR) from the University of Pennsylvania in the US. I completed my postdoctoral fellowship training at the US National Cancer Institute.

Research Interest

Cancer immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines, cell-based immunotherapy and genetically-modified cell therapy.