General
Seminar Professor Bruno Silva-Santos
Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa
Title: Molecular mechanisms of differentiation and activation of effector gamma-delta T cell subsets
Bruno Silva-Santos obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology at the University College in London (2002) in the lab of Michael J. Owen where he worked on T cell development and lineage commitment. He is group leader (2005) and vice-director (2014) at Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon. Since 2022 he is full-professor at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa.
He studies cellular and molecular crosstalks within the tumor microenvironment (TME), trying to boost anti-tumor mechanisms (based on cytotoxicity and interferon-gamma secretion) over pro-tumor effects (linked to inflammation and angiogenesis). Moreover, he has translated the seminal knowledge produced on gamma-delta (γδ) T cells to the development of a new methodology for adoptive cell therapy of cancer – Delta One T (DOT) cells – within a spin-off company, Lymphact SA, acquired in 2018 by GammaDelta Therapeutics (London, UK), and now part of the Takeda immunotherapy portfolio. In his team, they continue to study DOT cells, their functional regulation and their molecular mechanisms of tumor cell recognition, in collaboration with Takeda.
He also conducts a more fundamental Immuno-Biology research line, which has been funded by Starting and Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC), where he focusses on the thymic development and functional differentiation of gamma-delta (γδ) T cells. He aims to identify new molecular mechanisms involved in their thymic generation and in peripheral immune responses to infections (such as malaria) and cancer.