Overseeing the Malaghan Institute's current involvement in the cancer vaccine trials is Dr Ian Hermans, Head of the Vaccine Research group. Dr Hermans studied dendritic cell-based vaccination with Prof Ronchese at the Malaghan Institute between 1995 and 2001, before taking up a position at the Tumour Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2005 Dr Hermans returned to the Malaghan Institute and was awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Research Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand to pursue his research into improving the potency and efficacy of vaccines by exploiting the activity of NKT cells. His group has shown that NKT cells have the capacity to directly enhance the function of dendritic cells, and thus indirectly influence the quality of the whole immune response.
Click here to read more about Dr Hermans' research.
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