Research team led by Li Tang wins Leenaards Foundation Science Prize
The research team is led by EPFL professor Li Tang (middle), with Camilla Jandus (UNIGE, left) and Olivier Michielin (HUG, right) © Alban Kakulya
Two research groups in the Lake Geneva region have been selected for the 2025 Leenaards Science Prize, which comes with a total of CHF 1.4 million in award money. One of the research groups, led by Li Tang of the Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering in EPFL's School of Engineering, is exploring a new approach to overcoming cancer-cell resistance to immunotherapy.
According to a Fondation Leenaards press release, Tang received the prestigious prize as part of a collaborative research group alongside Camilla Jandus from the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine, and Olivier Michielin, chief of oncology at HUG. The goal of their work is to increase the stiffness of cancer-cell membranes, making it easier for patients’ own T-cells to attack and destroy the tumors. This approach, which combines mechanical engineering with biology and clinical practice, could lead to more effective treatments for patients who are resistant to existing types of immunotherapy.
“Our approach targets the mechanical properties of cancer cells by making their membranes stiffer, which improves the ability of T-cells to attach to the cancer cells and destroy them”, says Tang. “This could pave the way to more effective treatments for patients who are currently immunotherapy resistant.”
Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that involves boosting the capacity of a patient’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. However, cancer cells have developed strategies for avoiding detection by patients’ immune systems, which limits the efficacy of existing immunotherapies.
Our approach targets the mechanical properties of cancer cells by making their membranes stiffer, which improves the ability of T-cells to attach to the cancer cells and destroy them. This could pave the way to more effective treatments for patients who are currently immunotherapy resistant.
Scientists in Tang’s laboratory have recently found that membrane plasticity, which is a measure of how soft cancer cells are, plays a key role in immunotherapy resistance. The soft membranes make it impossible for T-cells – the guardians of our immune system – to attach to and destroy them. Tang’s research group aims to take advantage of the mechanical vulnerability offered by rigid membranes to open up new therapeutic horizons.
To better understand and take advantage of the possibilities opened up by stiffer cancer cells, the research group plans to conduct translational research involving mechanics, biology and clinical practice. First, scientists at Tang’s lab will identify agents that are effective at making cancer-cell membranes more rigid. Then, researchers at Jandus’s laboratory will subject the treated cells to immune cells taken from patients’ blood samples and test the treated cells on animals that are administered immunotherapy. At the same time, Michielin and his team will analyze tumor samples collected during biopsies of HUG patients in order to establish a potential link between cancercell membrane stiffness and immunotherapy outcomes.
The Leenaards Prize for Translational Biomedical Research is awarded every year to between one and three research projects that bring together researchers from at least two different universities or teaching hospitals in the Lake Geneva region, a group comprising the CHUV, the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Unisanté university healthcare center, Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and EPFL. Projects are selected because they use cutting-edge research to address a clinical problem in an innovative way. This prize also supports translational research projects that combine fundamental and clinical research in order to transform scientific discoveries into medical treatments.
The other research group awarded for 2025 is led by Jasmine Abdulcadir at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), which is developing a connected device that will be easy for women to use on their own and could substantially improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have suffered genital mutilation or trauma.