What’s new about Tang lab

Unexpected immune response may hold key to long-term cancer remission

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Results from a preclinical study in mice, led by EPFL, and a collaborative clinical study in patients show that the type 2 immune response – associated with parasitic infection and thought to play a negative role in cancer immunity – is positively correlated with long-term cancer remission.

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Award


— Prof. Li Tang has been awarded the Biomaterials Award for Young Investigator of Biomaterials. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field of biomaterials research, and has provided significant contributions to the Society. Congratulations!

Award


— Prof. Li Tang has been awarded the Mid-Career Investigator Award of Chinese Association for Biomaterials. This award recognizes researchers who have made outstanding contributions during the mid-stage of their academic careers, highlighting Professor Tang’s exceptional scientific achievements and relentless pursuit of academic excellence. Congratulations!

Publication


— Yang Zhao’s research paper entitled “IL-10-expressing CAR T cells resist dysfunction and mediate durable clearance of solid tumors and metastases” is published as a cover story in Nature Biotechnology, Volume 42 Issue 11, November 2024, and also highlighted in EPFL news, New Atlas, News Medical Life Sciences, and Technology Networks. Congratulations!

promotion


— The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of professors at EPFL. Prof. Li Tang is appointed as Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering (STI).

Spin-off


— EPFL spin-off Leman Biotech has developed a protein that can improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs used to treat some types of cancer. The firm has just completed its first funding round, in the amount of $11 million.

Conference


— PhD students Min Gao and Armand Kurum attended and presented their research in Gordon Research Conference in Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology.

Conference


— Prof. Tang attended and gave oral presentation about our lab’s most recent research in two Gordon Research Conferences: Immunometabolism in Health and Disease and Immunoengineering.

Fellowship


— Congratulations to Dr. Kewen Lei, who won the “National Outstanding Self-funded International Student Scholarship” in the Swiss Pavilion area awarded by China Scholarship Administration Committee.

Fellowship


— Congratulations to Dr. Xiaolei Zhou, who won the EPFLeaders4impact, a new postdoctoral fellowship! This fellowship is funded by the EU through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND scheme.

Graduation


— Congratulations to our newly minted PhDs, Dr. Yu-Qing Xie, Dr. Kewen Lei, and Dr. Lixia Wei! They are the very first cohort of PhDs produced by Tang lab!

News


— The news of our research article entitled “Switchable immune modulator for tumor-specific activation of anticancer immunity” is highlighted as the fifth of the top ten most-read news stories from 2021 of EPFL.

Fellowship


— Congratulations to Tom Enbar, who won the EPFLglobaLeaders doctoral fellowship! This fellowship is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant.

Publication


— Kewen Lei’s research paper entitled “Cancer-cell stiffening via cholesterol depletion enhances adoptive T-cell immunotherapy” is published and highlighted by Editorial of Nature Biomedical Eningeering, Volume 5 Issue 12, December 2021, and also highlighted in EPFL news, RTS, Le Matin, and Medical Press. Congratulations!

Publication


— Yu Zhao’s research paper entitled “Switchable Immune Modulator for Tumor-Specific Activation of Anticancer Immunity” is published in Science Advances in issue 37 and highlighted in EPFL news, RCI Radio Canada, Mirage News, and Medical Press. Congratulations!

Publication


— Yugang and Yuqing’s research paper entitled “Metabolic Reprogramming of Terminally Exhausted CD8+ T cells by IL-10 Enhances Anti-Tumor Immunity” is published in Nature Immunology as a cover story in issue 22 and highlighted in EPFL news, RTS, ACIR, and Nature Middle East. Congratulations!

Publication


— Kewen’s research paper entitled “T cell force-responsive delivery of anticancer drugs using mesoporous silica microparticles” is published in Materials Horizons as a cover story in issue 12 and highlighted in EPFL news. Professor Li Tang is also awarded as the Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator. Congratulations!

Award


— Professor Li Tang is highted as Outstanding Reviewers for Biomaterials Science in 2019. Congratulations!

Publication


— Lixia and Yu’s research paper entitled “ Redox-Responsive Polycondensate Neoepitope for Enhanced Personalized Cancer Vaccine” is published in ACS central science and highlighted in EPFL news. Congratulations!

Award


— Professor Li Tang has been named to MIT Technology Review’s 2019 China list of the 35 most promising innovators under 35 years of age. Congratulations!

Fellowship


— Xiaomeng Hu, Armand are awarded EPFL innovators fellowship. Congratulations!

Conference


— Yugang presents at the 8th Faculty & Staff Retreat of the Lausanne Cancer Research Community 2019, and give an oral presentation on “Metabolic Reprogramming of CD8+ T-cells by IL-10 Enhances Anti-Tumor Immunity”.

Conference


— Tang lab attended the  fifth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, Paris, France.

Conference


— Dr. Tang will give an invited talk at Cell Therapies and Bioengineering Conference.

Fellowship


— Yu is awarded prestigious EuroTechPostdoc Fellowship! Congratulations! He will develop novel vaccines in collaboration with Prof. Jurjen Tel’s group at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).

Publication


— Yu and Yugang’s review paper entitled “Engineering cancer vaccines using stimuli-responsive biomaterials” is accepted in Nano Research. Congratulations!

Publication and media report


— Our paper  about a smart nanogel backpack for enhanced T-cell immunotherapy is published in Nature Biotechnology and highlighted as a cover story of the August issue. Thank all the co-authors, editor and reviewers!

—A News & Views article by Dr. Heslop is associated.

—The paper has been highlighted in many media reports: MIT News, EPFL News, EurekAlert!, Phys.org, Nanowerk, My Science, eCancer, Health Canal, Medindia, Madrid, UPI.com, Science and Enterprise, Brinkwire, Sina, BioArt.

—Start-up company Torque based in Cambridge, Massacheusse, has licensed our patents, raised $25M, and has launched the clinical trial.

Grant


— We are awarded 2018 ERC starting grant (a 5-year grant) to explore a new area for physically modulating immune response for enhanced and safer cancer immunotherapy. Many thanks to ERC for the outstanding support!

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/prof-li-tang-gets-an-erc-starting-grant/

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

Publication


— Yugang and Kewen’s review paper on cancer neoantigen vaccine is published in Frontiers in Immunology. Congratulations!

Award


— Prof. Tang has been selected as a 2018 Young Innovator in NanoBiotech by Nano Research (NR 45 under 45). Thanks to the editors and organizers for this great honor!

Talk


— Dr. Tang delivered an invited talk at the 24th Annual Meeting of the SSB+RM: Bioinspired Materials at the Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg.

Talk


— Dr. Tang presented our research at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), Mainz, Germany.

Conference


—  Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at the Symposium SM02—Immune Modulatory Materials—From Design to Translational Applications, 2018 MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Thank Susan Thomas and Evan Scott for the opportunity!

Conference


—  Six Tang Lab members attended The Third CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, Mainz, Germany. Yuqing and Lixia were selected to present their posters.  Thanks to all the organizers for the opportunity!Everyone in Tang Lab enjoyed the cutting-edge science and the beautiful city, Mainz!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited seminar on the Dendritic Cells Immunotherapy Day at Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. See the video here. Thanks to Dr. Andrzej Dzionek and other organizers for the invitation and the fantastic visit!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at the Annual meeting of the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Geneva-Lausanne School of Pharmacy (EPGL), Zermatt, Switzerland. Thanks to the organizers, Dr. Carole Bourquin and Dr. Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska for the opportunity!

Visitor


— Dr. Darrell Irvine from MIT visited our lab!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China. Thanks to Dr. Nana Zhao, and Dr. Fujian Xu for the invitation and the fantastic visit!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials at Soochow University, Suzhou, China. Thanks to Dr. Lichen Yin for the invitation and the fantastic visit!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at the Faculty retreat of the Swiss Cancer Center Lausanne (SCCL). Thanks to the organizers for the opportunity!

Talk


— Dr. Tang gave an invited seminar at ETH Zürich. Thanks to Dr. Marcy Zenobi-Wong, and Dr. Martin Ehrbar, for the invitation and the fantastic visit!

Talk


— Dr. Tang delivered a presentation in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA. Thanks to Dr. Kit Lam and Dr. Yuanpei Li for the invitation!

Talk


— Dr. Tang delivered a presentation in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Thanks to Dr. Bo Wang for the invitation!

Conference


— Dr. Tang gave an invited talk at the symposium entitled “Biomaterials for Immunotherapy” during the 253rd American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition, San Francisco, CA, USA. Dr. Tang also chaired a session on immunoengineering. Thanks to the organizers, Dr. Hao Cheng, Dr. Zhen Gu, and Dr. Darrell Irvine, for the opportunity!

Grant


— Our laboratory was awarded  a project grant from Novartis Foundation for medical-biological Research to target LIGHT to tumor for enhanced cancer immunotherapy. This is a collaborative project  with Dr. Yang-Xin Fu’s team at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Many thanks to Novartis Foundation for the support!

Grant


— Our laboratory was awarded  a 3-year grant from Fondation Pierre Mercier pour la science to design an innovative cancer vaccine for enhanced lymph node targeting and cross-presentation. Many thanks to the Fondation Pierre Mercier for the generous support!

Grant


— Our laboratory was awarded  a 4-year, CHF 715’444, project funding from Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to support our research in immunoengineering through responsive nanoparticle drug delivery. Many thanks to SNSF for the ourstanding support!

First data


— Yuqing produced the 1st piece of data in our lab! Congratulations!

Grant


— Our laboratory was awarded  a EPFL-Biltema-ISREC grant to support our research in enhancing cancer immunotherapy using biomaterials. This is a collaborative project  with Dr. Coukos George’s team at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne. Many thanks to Biltema and ISREC Foundations for the support!

First visitors


— Dr. Kazunori Kataoka, Dr. Tatsuro Irimura, Dr. Kanjiro Miyata, Dr. Horacio Cabral and Hori from University of Tokyo visited our lab! They are our first visitors!

Opening of our lab


— The Tang laboratory (Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering (LBI)) opened!