Laureates 2026 - 2027
CHANUT MatildeMOUREN Adrien
FAZEL Mina
BEINSE Guillaume
SMOLENSCHI Cristina
VIBERT Julien
CEDOZ Etienne
CHANUT Matilde
Title of the project: Reprogramming CCR9 CAR-T Cells for resistance to fratricide and enhanced persistence in Tcell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Current position: Junior Doctor in clinical hematology in the Adolescent and Young Adult Unit, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris.
Research project: collaboration between the teams of Laurie Menger, Gustave Roussy
Institute, and Paul Maciocia, University College London (UCL), UK.
Summary of the project: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematologic malignancy
associated with a poor prognosis in the relapsed or refractory setting. In contrast to B-cell ALL,
the use of immunotherapies in T-ALL remains limited. CCR9-targeted CAR-T cells have shown
promising activity in preclinical studies and are currently being evaluated in a phase I clinical
trial. However, improving their persistence and resistance to apoptosis remains essential to
enhance their long-term efficacy.
This collaborative project between the laboratories of Laurie Menger at Gustave Roussy
Institute (France) and Paul Maciocia at University College London (UK) proposes a genomic
reprogramming strategy based on dual gene editing performed in a single step in T
lymphocytes: the inactivation of a pro-apoptotic gene and the targeted insertion of a
transcription factor that is not physiologically expressed in T cells but has been identified
through recent functional screens as promoting cellular persistence.
The expected results extend beyond the scope of T-ALL by providing fundamental insights into
the genetic and transcriptional determinants of activated T-cell persistence, with potential
applications across all forms of cellular immunotherapy.
MOUREN Adrien
Title of the project: Mechanistic study of FLT3 ligand-mediated modulation of immune responses induced by personalized neoantigen vaccination in melanoma
Current professional affiliation: Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, Department of Early Phase Clinical Trials and Drug Development (DITEP) and Skin Cancer Department, Villejuif, France
Host institution: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Abstract: Personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines represent a major breakthrough in immuno-oncology but display heterogeneous clinical and immunological efficacy. A key biological limitation lies in insufficient dendritic cell activation, which is essential for effective priming of cytotoxic T cells. This project aims to investigate for the first time in humans the mechanistic impact of adding FLT3 ligand (CDX-301), a dendritic cell-expanding cytokine, to a personalized neoantigen vaccination platform in melanoma patients. By integrating longitudinal immune monitoring, high-dimensional flow cytometry, and paired single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing, this study will identify immunological determinants of vaccine-induced responses and define predictive immune signatures to guide the development of next-generation therapeutic cancer vaccines.
FAZEL Mina
Title of the project: Decrypting the tumor microenvironment as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy: focus on rare sarcomas
Current location Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France
Fellowship location: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Summary of the project: Rare sarcomas are biologically heterogeneous tumors with poor prognosis, for which responses to immunotherapy remain unpredictable in the absence of validated biomarkers, with sometimes spectacular responses. We hypothesize that the characteristics of the tumor microenvironment (TME) - composition, spatial organization, and cellular functional states- determine the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and may serve as predictive biomarkers.
An integrated multi-omic approach (bulk RNA-seq and multiplex immunofluorescence on all samples, single-nucleus RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics on ASPS and angiosarcomas) combined with advanced computational pipelines will be applied to >200 rare sarcomas treated with ICI in France and the United States.
The project will identify immunological archetypes, predictive signatures of response or resistance to ICIs, and new therapeutic targets, with a direct impact on patient stratification and the development of biomarker-guided clinical trials in rare sarcomas.
BEINSE Guillaume
Title of the project: Multiscale Whole-Genome Analyses of Cell-Free DNA to Decipher the Evolving Immunogenomic Landscape in Patients with Gynecologic Malignancies
Current location: Groupe Hospitalo-Universitaire Paris Centre, Hôpital Cochin/Hopital Européen Georges Pompidou, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
Fellowship location: Prof Pugh lab, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Gynecologic Oncology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Ontario, Canada
Summary of the project: Gynecologic malignancies exhibit heterogeneous genomic and immunologic profiles and are associated with hereditary syndromes that confer variable risks and ages of cancer onset. This project aims to characterize the interplay between tumor genomic features and the systemic host response in patients with ovarian cancer—before diagnosis in individuals with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) predisposition, at diagnosis, and during treatment—to improve our understanding of the systemic mechanisms potentially underlying tumor initiation and dissemination, both prior to and under therapy.
The dataset will include patients with gynecologic malignancies previously profiled by cell-free DNA (cfDNA) whole-genome sequencing (WGS) within the CHARM consortium and the NEO/Re-VOLVE trials. Fragmentomic analyses derived from cfDNA WGS will integrate circulating tumor genomic and immune-related features to define novel patient clusters and identify key feature interactions.
SMOLENSCHI Cristina
Title of the project: Understanding Biology in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer: A Proteomic Approach
Current place of work: Gustave Roussy , Villejuif, France
Fellowship location: Dana Farber- Center for Gastrointestinal Oncology ,Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, 450 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215
Summary of the project: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Of growing concern is the rising incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC), diagnosed in individuals under 50 years old, increasing by 1–4% annually. EOCRC is characterized by more aggressive clinical features, including advanced stage at diagnosis, poor differentiation, signet-ring cell histology, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, and poorer survival outcomes. While hereditary syndromes such as Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis are more prevalent in this population, they do not fully explain the increasing trend. Environmental and lifestyle factors have been proposed, yet causal mechanisms remain unclear.
Most existing studies have focused on genomic and transcriptomic differences between EOCRC and late-onset CRC (LOCRC), but these approaches do not fully capture the tumor’s functional state. Proteomics offers a dynamic and biologically relevant strategy to characterize disease mechanisms; however, EOCRC-specific proteomic data remain scarce.
We hypothesize that EOCRC exhibits distinct proteomic signatures and pathway activities compared to LOCRC. Our aims are: to characterize the proteomic landscape of EOCRC tumors; to integrate proteomic data with genomic data as well as risk factors to identify biologically distinct subgroups; and to identify prognostic proteomic biomarkers associated with survival outcomes. This work aims to improve the understanding of EOCRC biology and to validate these findings in prospective clinical studies,particularly in YODA program ,in France.
VIBERT Julien
Title of the project: Modular AI Agents for Clinical Decision Support and Biological Discovery in Rare Cancers
Current place of work: DITEP / Sarcoma Team, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
Fellowship location: Teams Jakob Kather / Stefan Fröhling, University Heidelberg / NCT Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Summary of the project: This project aims to develop and validate modular autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents capable of supporting decision-making in oncology by integrating multimodal data, including clinical and genomic information. Unlike traditional task-specific AI tools, these agents are designed to reproduce complex clinical workflows, such as molecular tumor board preparation and therapeutic decision support. The project builds on the unique multi-omic resources of the MASTER program led by Prof. Stefan Fröhling, dedicated to rare cancers at Heidelberg, as well as on the world-renowned expertise of Prof. Jakob Nikolas Kather in clinical AI for oncology. Beyond clinical decision support, the AI agents will also be developed as research tools, enabling systematic exploration of multi-omic data to identify novel biological targets, biomarkers, and molecular signatures in rare cancers. Retrospective and prospective validation will assess their clinical and scientific impact for the direct benefit of patients.
CEDOZ Etienne
Title of the project: Extending Multicentre Rapid-Learning Methodology to Enable Inclusive, Real-World Evaluation of Radiotherapy Innovation
Current place of work: Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France
Fellowship location: The Christie HS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK
Summary of the project: Randomised controlled trials remain the gold standard to evaluate changes in cancer care, but they are increasingly hindered by long timelines, high costs, recruitment difficulties, and the under-representation of certain patient groups. These limitations are particularly pronounced in radiotherapy, where innovations are often implemented directly in routine practice without robust evidence of their real-world impact.
The RAPID-RT programme, developed at The Christie HS Foundation Trust, offers an alternative rapid-learning approach based on real-world data to iteratively evaluate and optimise changes in complex treatments. This methodology was demonstrated by the introduction, in April 2023, of a new cardiac dose constraint during curative-intent lung cancer radiotherapy. It was implemented in routine practice in the absence of equipoise, with more than 1,500 patients included over two and a half years.
To scale RAPID-RT to a multicentre setting, a major barrier remains: the lack of a validated minimum dataset enabling robust causal inference across diverse clinical environments. Data maturity varies widely between centres, and without a clear definition of essential variables, multicentre implementation of rapid-learning remains uncertain.
The aim of this fellowship is to develop a rigorous methodological framework to define minimum datasets that will enable the reliable deployment of multicentre rapid-learning studies.