Maike named Entrepreneurial Group Leader of the Year

https://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/maike-de-la-roche-named-entrepreneurial-group-leader-of-the-year/

Gideon’s summer journey at CRUK CI

Please take a look at Gideon’s account of his visit to the CRUK CI last summer:

https://www.cambridge-africa.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-africa-updates/my-summer-journey-at-cancer-research-uk-cambridge-institute-a-dive-into-the-world-of-cancer-research/

Congratulations to Segun

Segun’s abstract titled “Hedgehog Signaling is Critical for the Anti-tumor Activity of Natural Killer Cells” was accepted for Oral Presentation at the 19th Annual Academic Surgical Congress to be held February 6-8, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Congratulations Flavio

Flavio has been awarded both an ED Davies Scholarship and Honorary College Senior Scholarship at Fitzwilliam College, in recognition of his intellectual achievement and to help towards academic related costs during the year.

Hedgehog signalling in CD4⁺ T helper cell polarisation

We are delighted to announce that Joachim’s and Maike’s article has been published in the Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2024.106518

Viva news!

Huge congratulations to Stephen for passing his viva today.

Congratulations to James Jones

We are delighted to announce that James has been awarded a five year fellowship at the University of Cambridge and is now Clinical Senior Research Associate & Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology.

James works on a number of clinical studies in kidney cancer, as translational lead for the NAXIVA and WIRE trials. NAXIVA was a neoadjuvant study investigating the efficacy of axitinib for downstaging kidney cancer with venous tumour thrombus. WIRE is a window of opportunity study for kidney cancer, assessing novel drug combinations in the neoadjuvant setting.

He is also chief investigator of ARTIST, a translational study aiming to investigate the whole natural history of kidney cancer, from early to incurable disease. James is also interested in integrated cancer medicine, developing a platform based on the ARTIST study in collaboration with other members of the Cancer Centre.

James will continue to work as a visiting fellow in the de la Roche lab, strengthening our translational research efforts.

Poster Prize!

Many congratulations to Segun for winning the poster prize at the Joint CI/CC Retreat,11-13 October 2023.

Welcome to Norbert Eugen Sajgo

We welcome Norbert, who has joined our lab after completing the first year of his PhD with Professor Randall Johnson.

Inaugural UCI – CRUK CI Summer School in Uganda

Funded by the Cambridge Africa ALBORADA Trust, Maike, Segun, Jane Gray and Ashely Sawle from the CI, went to Uganda to run the first Uganda Cancer Institute, Makerere University / CRUK CI Summer School. Maike and her team ran a programme of in-person and online talks delivered by CI Group Leaders; together with practical training in various laboratory techniques such as Western Blot, Flow Cytometry and qRT-PCR, as well as bioinformatics training in R and analysis of RNAseq data sets. The summer school was very well attended and students and lecturers alike, found it an incredible learning experience.

Congratulations to Dilyara and Nico

Dilyara and Nico have been awarded a Bio-spark entrepreneurial programme fellowship, to work with both Altos and AstraZeneca.

Nat Billington Award

Congratulations to Segun who has won the Nat Billington Award to support his engagement with the Makerere University, Uganda Cancer Institute – CRUK Cambridge Institute Reverse Summer School Programme, running from 18-22 September 2023 in Uganda. Segun is co-organiser of the event and will be joining the summer school as a lecturer.

Miltenyi Biotec CAR T Rally

Maike was invited to talk at the CAR T Rally, where she was able to share ideas on novel CAR T Cell approaches.

Welcome to Gideon Nsubuga and Peter Ziribagwa

Gideon and Peter arrived from Uganda to start their eight week summer school research programme at the CI today. Gideon will be working with our lab on gammadelta T cells.

Welcome to Marshall

Marshall Chojnacki joined our lab today as a Research Assistant. Marshall read Biological Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 2019 to 2023, and completed his Bachelor’s research project with Professor Tony Jackson at the Department of Biochemistry.

BSI Bristol Immunology Group

Maike gave a talk at the BSI Immunology of long-haul disease meeting in Bristol.

UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Maike was invited to present her work at the Cilia Supergroup seminar series at UCSF (UCSF, UC Berkeley and Stanford), hosted by Professor Jeremy Reiter.

Cancer Immunology Symposium

Maike was invited to present her latest work at the Cancer Immunology Symposium, which was hosted by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. The symposium was a collaboration between the BRC Immunity in Inflammation and Transplantation Theme and the CRUK Cancer Immunology Programme.

EMBO Workshop on Hedgehog Signalling

Maike was invited to present at the EMBO workshop, Hedgehog signalling: From molecular structure to developmental biology and diseases, held at the beautiful venue of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain. Louise, Chrysa, Segun, Flavio, Stephen and Dilyara were selected to attend the workshop after submitting their abstracts, and Chrysa was chosen to give a talk. Segun, Flavio, Stephen and Chrysa were also awarded travel grants to attend the meeting.

2seventy Bio Seminar Series

Maike was invited to present at the 2seventy Bio seminar series focusing on T Cell therapies.

Festival of Genomics and Biodata

Maike was invited to present her work at the 8th annual Festival of Genomics in London, which was the largest genomics event in the UK and Europe. This year’s event included extended focus on clinical genomics, cancer genomics, single cell & spatial analysis, liquid biopsy, biodata and multi-omics/advanced sequencing approaches.

Fitzwilliam College Senior Scholarship

Flavio has been awarded a Fitzwilliam College Senior Scholarship in recognition of his excellent intellectual achievements. This award is intended to help towards academic-related costs during the year and provides Flavio with ‘Scholar’ status within the college. The award is given to the College’s highest performing PhD students.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Maike presented the lab’s latest work, as an invited speaker at the CSHL Cancer Centre Defeating Cancer Seminar series.

Welcome to Faith

Faith Ameede has joined our lab for four weeks as part of the CRUK CI/Ugandan Cancer Institute summer research programme. Faith will be shadowing our researchers and learning techniques, such as Western Blot, Flow Cytometry, ELISA, Cell Culture and Histo Core training.

BSI Travel Bursary Award

Many congratulations to Chrysa who has been awarded a travel bursary to attend the BSI 2022 Congress in Liverpool.

Prize winners!

The de la Roche lab have won first prize in the CRUK CI Retreat Team Building competition! Our entry was titled ‘Immune cells around fire 2000 / 2020 / 2040’ and we are now very proud custodians of the Team Building Award cup for the next year.

Welcome to Dilyara and Michael

Dilyara has joined our lab as a PhD student, after completing an MSc in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Michael is our new Research Laboratory Technician and joins us with a background in bioscience, having completed an MSc in Molecular Medicine at the University of Essex.

CRUK and ALBORADA funding awarded

We are delighted to announce that Maike has been awarded CRUK funding for five years, to enable the continuation of the CRUK Cambridge Institute – Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) Summer Research Programme, which she established in 2019. Maike, together with Nixon Niyonzima from the UCI, has also been awarded funds from the Cambridge Africa ALBORADA Research Fund 2022, to take senior CRUK CI staff to Uganda to establish a Summer School at the UCI/Makerere University.

NIH Seminar

Maike was invited to present her work as part of the NIH’s Genomics and Immunology Seminar Series.

A new prong to IBD therapy?

Our paper has been highlighted in this review article published in Gut, BMJ on 7 September (Vol 21, issue 10).

The local Cambridge Independent also published an article today about our latest work.

How we can reduce cancer risk in inflammatory bowel disease patients by blocking a Hedgehog

Please see the article here about our recent work.

“An immunological Lens for Cancer” Beatson Institute, Glasgow

Chrysa and Maike presented at a fantastic workshop organised by Megan MacLeod and Ed Roberts.

Cambridge Africa Day

Maike, together with our Ugandan collaborator Nixon Niyonzima from the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), showcased the achievements of our joint UCI-CRUK CI Summer Research Programme.

IPSCC in Heidelberg

Nico and Stephen attended the International PhD Student Cancer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany and presented their work.  The IPSCC is held annually for students from top cancer research institutes across Europe, giving them an opportunity to share their work and explore cancer research conducted in Europe. 

Maike attends the EMBO Workshop

Maike presented the lab’s latest work at the EMBO 2022 workshop ‘Lymphocyte antigen receptor signalling’, which was held at the beautiful setting of Certosa di Pontignano, nestled in the heart of the Tuscan hills! 

Welcome to James

We welcome James to our lab as a Visiting Fellow. James holds an NIHR funded Clinical Lectureship at the University of Cambridge, Department of Oncology and will add a new dimension to our translational research efforts.

Welcome to Segun

We welcome Segun Afolaranmi to our lab as a PhD student. Segun has won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and will be with us for the next four years completing his PhD.

BSI Congress

The lab travelled to the BSI Congress in Edinburgh, where Louise and Joachim presented their work. The Congress is the UK’s premier immunology event and it included talks on cutting-edge research from leading UK and international researchers.

Maike was delighted to secure sponsorship from Miltenyi Biotech for Resty Nabeeta to attend the BSI in Edinburgh.  Resty is a summer student at the CI (delayed due to Covid) on a joint programme with the Ugandan Cancer Institute.  Resty wrote about her experiences here and Miltenyi also produced a spotlight article about Resty and Maike (here).

Welcome to Annika and Arman

Welcome to Annika Decker who has joined us for eight months as a research placement intern student.  Annika has secured Erasmus funding and is currently a second year Masters student on the Molecular Mechanisms of Disease programme at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

We also welcome Arman Ghodsinia who joins us for a three month rotation placement funded by the CRUK Cambridge Centre MRes/PhD student programme.

Welcome to Nico Mueller

Nico joins us from Heidelberg University, where he completed a Masters in Molecular Biotechnology.  Nico has secured a fully funded CRUK PhD studentship.