Li Tang wins BRIDGE Discovery Grant
Li Tang. EPFL CC BY SA
Li Tang, head of the Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering in the School of Engineering, is part of a team of researchers from EPFL, the Lausanne University Hospital, and the University of Lausanne that has been awarded a BRIDGE Discovery Grant to develop new CAR-T cell therapies against neuroblastoma in children.
BRIDGE is a joint program of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Innosuisse - the Swiss Agency for Innovation Promotion. It offers funding at the interface of basic research and science-based innovation. Discovery grants are aimed at experienced researchers who want to explore and realise the innovation potential of research results.
Along with Francesco Ceppi and Raffaele Renella (CHUV) and Annick Mühlethaler-Mottet (CHUV/University of Lausanne), Li Tang has received the prestigious grant to develop a new CAR-T cell therapy against neuroblastoma in children. The award comprises CHF 1.7 million over four years.
"This project really aims for clinical translation, and hopefully the launch of clinical trials at CHUV in the near future. I think this is a great opportunity for us to build and strengthen close connections with CHUV, which is critical for innovation and translation," Tang says.
Tang's research in the Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering focuses on developing novel strategies to engineer multi-dimensional immunity-disease interactions from various aspects, in order to create safe and effective therapies against cancer and infectious diseases. He was also recently awarded the 2025 Leenaards Science Prize, which comes CHF 1.4 million to explore a new approach to overcoming cancer-cell resistance to immunotherapy.