Pittet Mikaël

Prof. Mikaël Pittet

Understanding and manipulating the immune system to fight against cancer, group leader & CRTOH Coordinator

Understanding and manipulating the immune system to fight against cancer

We aim to acquire missing knowledge needed to find better ways to fight cancer. To this end, we combine fundamental and translational studies, and focus on harnessing the immune system.

In our fundamental studies, we are discovering the complexity of immune cells in the context of inflammation and cancer. With this knowledge, we then seek to identify which immune cells suppress or promote the growth of cancer, and how they do so. These mechanisms could later be targeted with novel immunotherapies to increase our ability to fight cancer.

In our translational studies, we are addressing how current and next-generation treatments work in vivo and in real time, and what can make them fail. To this end, we are using various approaches, including high-resolution intravital imaging. This technology is also helping us discover new treatment options, which should be effective against a broader range of tumors and in more patients.

Illustration: Intravital microscopy images showing how drugs used in immunotherapy work in real time (here, anti-PD-1 antibody (aPD-1), a drug used in cancer treatment to bind and activate T cells). The sequence of images takes place inside a tumour and follows a T-cell (in green), surrounded by several tumour cells (in red). The aPD-1 antibody (white) binds to the T-cell quickly, here after 6 minutes, but is "lost" after 30 minutes. New treatments that allow the aPD-1 antibody to bind longer to T cells may be more effective in fighting cancer.

Publications

Researchers

Short Bio

Professor Mikael Pittet completed his PhD thesis in Immunology at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and graduated from the University of Lausanne in 2001. He pursued his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, United States, where he was named Samana Cay MGH Research Scholar in 2015, Director of the Center for Systems Biology Cancer Immunology Program in 2016, and full Professor at Harvard Medical School in 2019. He joined the Faculty of Medicine at UNIGE in 2020 where he is appointed Full Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, holding the ISREC Foundation Chair in Onco-Immunology. He is also a Full Member of Ludwig Cancer Research, member of the Department of Oncology of the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), and CRTOH coordinator at UNIGE. His research laboratory is located in Lausanne in the Agora Cancer Research Center, which assembles interdisciplinary research groups from various institutions to translate advances in cancer research to the clinic. Professor Pittet’s research focuses on uncovering how the immune system controls cancer and other diseases, and how it can be harnessed for therapy. His work has identified how cancers are regulated by various immune cells, including cytotoxic T cells, regulatory T cells, macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils and dendritic cells. These cells are considered as drug targets in cancer immunotherapy. Professor Pittet is recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher based on his multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations during the last decade.