The Molecular and Cellular Therapy group is a research team at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) led by prof. dr. Karine Breckpot and prof. dr. Lorenzo Franceschini. 

The research team consists of 9 PhD students, who are supported by 3 senior laboratory technicians in their day to day research activities focused on advancing immunotherapy in the field of oncology and beyond.

We are dedicated to developing innovative immunotherapy strategies to combat cancer and other diseases (e.g., infectious diseases and auto-immunity).

We focus on engineering immune cells both in vitro and in vivo to develop innovative immunotherapy strategies. To that end, we use key enabling technologies such as mRNA, RNA interference, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, lentiviral vectors and nanobodies. Immune cells that are re-programmed to identify, surveil, and finally destroy cancer cells, considering mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy, include dendritic cells, macrophages, T cells and NK cells.
    
Our ongoing efforts aim to advance the field of immunotherapy, developing more effective treatments and clinical applications, contributing to health and wellbeing. This is exemplified by collaborative projects aimed at developing clinical grade vaccines in context of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection (Baxerna2.0) and colorectal cancer (CHIMERNA) as well as collaborative projects aimed at developing clinical grade adoptive cell therapies in context of glioblastoma (GlioCAR).