Felipe Galvez-Cancino

I am a pharmacist by training, graduating from Universidad de Chile in 2014. I did my undergraduate work in 2013 at Fundacion Ciencia & Vida in Santiago, Chile, investigating the development of novel adjuvants for DNA cancer vaccines. This early training and the finding that DNA vaccination generates skin tissue-resident memory CD8⁺ T cells led to my decision to continue in graduate studies in the same laboratory. From March 2014 to April 2018, I studied the role of skin tissue-resident memory CD8⁺ T cells in protecting against cutaneous melanoma and their interaction with cross-presenting dendritic cells. In 2016, I was also a visiting student in the Department of Immunology at Stanford University, where I focused on deciphering the contribution of the different subsets of skin dendritic cells to the generation of memory CD8⁺ T cells. In 2018, I began my postdoctoral work at the University College London Cancer Institute, where, among many projects, I studied the Treg-depleting antibodies in glioblastoma and their mechanism of action. 

Since June 2024, I have been a Group Leader and Kidani Fellow at the Centre for Immuno-Oncology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine. My lab aims to understand how effector immune populations are regulated within tumours. We focus on macrophages and the regulation of their phagocytic capacity, as well as CD8+ T cells and the regulation of their cytotoxic phenotype. We aim to understand fundamental mechanisms to develop novel immunotherapies that can be taken to the clinic, impacting patients and families.