Michal Bassani-sternberg

Biography

I head the Immunopeptidomics unit that is integrated within the Center of Experimental Therapeutic (CTE) in the department of Oncology at the CHUV, the university hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. The central goal of the unit is to integrate, for the first time, mass spectrometry based immunopeptidomics into the innovative translational clinical strategy of personalized immunotherapy within the department of oncology. For more than ten years I have focused my research mainly on antigen discovery by mass spectrometry. I developed a high-throughput MS-based workflow that allows stringent and accurate in-depth identification of HLA binding peptides directly from tissue samples. I established a very comprehensive database of immunopeptidomes isolated from different cancer types and uncovered hundreds of new cancer associated HLA ligands. In combination with exome sequencing data, I extended the analysis to include the identification of patient's specific neo-epitopes that contain non-synonymous somatic mutations. Currently in my lab we advance this strategy for the development of personalized immunotherapy and immune-monitoring for cancer patients.

Research Interest

Immunopeptidomics, cancer therapeutics, immunotherapy