In 2023, six AGORA members were named Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate/Web of Science!
This recognition not only means that their publications rank in the top 1% by citations for their respective field over the past decade, but is also a hallmark of analysis quality and expert judgement.
We would like to express our sincere congratulations to the following six brilliant scientists: Prof. George Coukos, Prof. Michele De Palma, Prof. Raphael Gottardo, Prof. Johanna Joyce, Prof. Olivier Michielin, and Prof. Mikaël Pittet.
We were greatly honored to welcome the president of the Executive Council of the Canton of Vaud, Christelle Luisier Brodard, to our annual conference entitled “At the Heart of Oncological Research”.
This event was a great opportunity to draw attention to the power of scientific collaborations as well as to the fundamental role played by private foundations.
On this occasion, Mrs. Luisier Brodard had the opportunity to visit the AGORA research center and to exchange views with young scientists.
On Tuesday, October 3rd, Prof. Mikaël Pittet was presented with the Rayonnement Académique Award of the Société Académique Vaudoise by its president, Dr. Cyrille Piguet.
This prestigious prize, awarded for the first time in 2014, honors “those who make the university shine”. Thus, this distinction underlines Prof. Pittet’s outstanding scientific contributions in the field of immunotherapy. His research aims to discover how the immune system controls cancer and other diseases, and how it can be exploited for therapeutic purposes. His work has in particular led to the elucidation of how certain types of cancer are regulated by various cell classes, including cytotoxic and regulatory T cells, macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils and dendritic cells, all of which are considered drug targets for cancer immunotherapies.
The ISREC Foundation is very proud to support this eminent immunotherapy specialist’s research.
It is with great pride that we announce the new professorship created in collaboration with EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), which will be headed by Professor Nicolas Thomä.
The ISREC Foundation is donating 7.5 million CHF to the funding of this chair. Through this decisive donation we are able to contribute in a very tangible way to medical advances resulting from the research carried out by Prof. Thomä and his team.
Named in memory of Yves Paternot, the tireless patron and president of our Foundation (2005 to 2016) who passed away in 2016, this new professorship epitomizes our commitment to accelerating advances in the field of translational oncology. This substantial funding proudly perpetuates Yves Paternot’s vision, which has contributed to the ISREC’s impact far beyond cantonal borders and the Lake of Geneva region.
Prof. Mikaël Pittet, holder of the ISREC Foundation’s Immuno-Oncology Chair, is this year’s recipient of the Prix du Rayonnement Académique, awarded by the Société Académique Vaudoise.
This prestigious honor recognizes Prof. Pittet’s outstanding scientific contributions. The ISREC Foundation is proud to support this eminent immunotherapy specialist’s research.
Congratulations are in order for Prof. Johanna Joyce of the University of Lausanne, who, together with Roeltje Maas, has published a study in the prestigious journal Cell Press.
This study offers a first description of how the brain tumor environment acts on certain cells, so called neutrophils, to convert them into cells that prevent our immune system from fighting against cancer.
The ISREC Foundation is very pleased to have been able to contribute to this promising research.
For more information The local microenvironment drives activation of neutrophils in human brain tumors: Cell
Félicitations au laboratoire du Dr Grégory Verdeil pour la publication dans la prestigieuse revue Nature Immunology de son étude sur le facteur de transcription NFAT5 qui régule l’épuisement des lymphocytes T dans le contexte du cancer mais pas lors d’une infection virale chronique.
Lien vers la publication (en anglais): Activation of the transcription factor NFAT5 in the tumor microenvironment enforces CD8+ T cell exhaustion | Nature Immunology
Once again, the SUR-SRP “Summer Research” program (July 3 to August 25), organized by the UNIL and the EPFL and supported by the ISREC Foundation, was a huge success. The students were thrilled to discover AGORA. We hope that this once-in-a-lifetime experience will open up new horizons for them.
This year, six research groups working in Lausanne, Geneva, Bern and Bellinzona were awarded a TANDEM grant.
Each team, consisting of a clinician and a basic research scientist, will address a question of direct clinical relevance from two angles: that of understanding the molecular mechanisms involved and that of directly improving cancer patient care.