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Welcome to the team – Jean-Christophe Beltra Lab!
Prof. Dr. Beltra Jean-Christophe is an immunologist who studies the fundamental mechanisms regulating adaptive T-cell responses to pathogens and cancer. Notably, he seeks to better understand the immunological processes limiting current anti-cancer immunotherapies and to develop innovative strategies to better complement these approaches, ultimately maximizing benefit for a broader range of patients.
Primarily, Dr. Beltra’s work will focuses on the identification and characterization of novel pathways capable of counteracting exhaustion - a process that dampens anti-cancer T-cell responses and restricts the efficacy of current anti-cancer immunotherapies. In his recent work, Dr. Beltra has unveiled previously unappreciated flexibility in the developmental program of exhaustion. By targeting key pathways, he demonstrated that this developmental flexibility can be exploited therapeutically to rewire exhausted T-cells towards more durably protective states. Dr. Beltra now aims to build upon his recent findings and explore new avenues for a better therapeutic manipulation of exhausted T-cells. With this research, Dr. Beltra expects to provide key insights for advancing the next generation of cancer immunotherapies.
Second, Dr. Beltra will investigate the biological processes underlying acquired resistance to checkpoint blockade therapy. In particular, he has recently elucidated the cellular dynamics that contribute to the benefits of checkpoint blockade therapy. Building on these findings, Dr. Beltra will now investigate why the majority of patients who initially respond to checkpoint blockade do not experience long-term benefits. Through this research, Dr. Beltra expects to provide key insights for developing complementary approaches to checkpoint blockade therapy and achieving durable benefits in more patients.