The role of dead cell engulfment in shaping antigen presentation and anti-tumour immunity

• PhD

Dead cells are constantly generated in our bodies and must be cleared by macrophages. This clean-up process suppresses inflammation. In tumours, where cancer therapies drive extensive cell death, this suppression may be enough to shut down anti-tumour immunity altogether.

This project asks whether tumour cell death is working against us — suppressing the very immune response needed to finish the job. Using in-vitro and animal models, the research will explore how macrophages and dendritic cells process dead cell cargo and whether this can be reversed to drive anti-tumour immunity.

The student will gain experience in proteomics, immunopeptidomics, flow cytometry, primary immune cell culture, antigen presentation assays, cytokine profiling, and in vivo tumour modelling.

The Tanzer lab is a young and collaborative team working at the intersection of proteomics, imaging, and cell biology. We focus on how the immune system responds to cell death — and how we can manipulate that response in a therapeutic context.

We welcome students who are excited by collaborative science and curiosity-driven research at the interface of fundamental biology and clinical questions.

This project will involve substantial collaboration with members of the Immunology division, Cancer division and Proteomics facility.