Ten PhD students of the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) attended this year’s PhD Student Retreat in Hammelburg on the Franconian Saale from April 17 to April 19. Members of nine different LIT Research Divisions and Research Groups exchanged insights on the latest developments at the LIT, got amutual overview of their diverse projects and different methods used at the LIT.
Stem-cell memory T (TSCM) cells are a rare subset of immune cells with the ability to self-renew, persist long term, and mount potent anti-tumor responses. These properties make them an attractive candidate for next-generation CAR T-cell therapies. However, their clinical potential has not previously been demonstrated in humans. An international team of researchers co-led by Professor Luca Gattinoni from the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) and Dr. James Kochenderfer from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), has now published a new study in Cell reporting, for the first time, that CAR T cells designed to acquire a TSCM phenotype demonstrate a favorable safety profile and can induce complete remissions at remarkably low doses without the chemotherapy preconditioning, which is typically used in CAR T-cell therapy to enhance engraftment.
April 29 is recognized worldwide as “Immunology Day.” This year’s theme “Regulatory T Cells: Guardians of Immune Balance”, is particularly timely: the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine honored Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell und Shimon Sakaguchi for their work in this area. Dr. Frauke Hoffmann and Ardita Ramadani from the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy are among the researchers working on these immune cells and have designed an informational poster focusing on wound healing.
“Building Fitter T Cells to Fight Cancer” is the title of a new podcast episode with Assoc. Prof. Roland Schelker, Head of Translation Group “T-Cell Fitness” at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy. Podcast host is Dr. Smita Karpate, who initiated “The Cure Circle”, an Indian initiative bringing together scientists, clinicians, and innovators in cell and gene therapy, regenerative medicine, and biotechnology.
The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Regensburg has honored two LIT publications as “Highlights of Biomedical Research” in January and March. The “Highlights of Biomedical Research” platform offers young researchers in particular the opportunity to showcase outstanding research achievements, providing valuable insights into the faculty’s contributions.
“Cells built to cure” serves as the guiding slogan of the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy and captures our enthusiasm for the field of synthetic immunology and synthetic biology. During our conference, leading international experts in this field will present and discuss cutting‑edge, novel approaches. The International LIT Symposium takes place on June 23rd to 24th, 2026, in Regensburg, Germany. We would be delighted to have you with us!
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is based on engineered immune cells that find and destroy cancer cells. However, sometimes these cells also attack healthy tissues, causing side effects. An international team of researchers, including LIT scientists Dr. Leo Scheller, Dr. Markus Barden, and Prof. Hinrich Abken, has now developed a system to control T-cell binding to other cells by an approved small molecule drug.
The Research Division “Interventional Immunology” at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT), headed by Prof. Philipp Beckhove, is part of a new collaborative project striving for a holistic understanding of cancer-immune cell interactions within the pancreatic ecosystem. Ultimately, this knowledge aims to enable personalized combination immunotherapies targeting both tumor cells and their immune environment to finally transform pancreatic cancer into a treatable disease.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has extended the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) Transregio 221 “Regulation of Graft-versus-Host and Graft-versus-Leukemia Immune Responses after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation” for a third funding period of four years, committing 15 million euros in support to the participating partners. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) play a key role in this large interdisciplinary research consortium and represent excellence in immunomedicine.
A delegation of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) recently visited the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) in Saarbrücken. The aim of the meeting was to establish collaborations between the institutes in order to develop innovative forms of therapy at the interface between materials science and immunotherapy. There was particular interest in the topics of “synthetic cells,” “therapeutic Lactobacillus engineering,” and “optogenetic T-cell control.”
