Ahmet Hazini

My primary research focuses on utilising macrophages as cellular immunotherapy for cancer, with a particular emphasis on their role in tumour antigen cross-presentation and the induction of prolonged adaptive immune responses. I am currently working on developing strategies to arm macrophages with therapeutic interventions to increase their phagocytosis and cross-presentation ability using oncolytic viral vectors. 

Macrophages are known to contribute to tumour growth, metastasis, and the formation of an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME) that hinders immunotherapy; however, this can be reversed by exploiting their unique abilities to detect and migrate to tumours, transition between pro- and anti-tumour states, and cross-present tumour antigens to T cells, making them highly promising candidates for immuno-oncology.

Our work focuses on harnessing their function as professional antigen-presenting cells, and reprogramming them to drive robust adaptive immune responses against primary and metastatic tumours. These efforts aim to unlock the full therapeutic potential of macrophages and transform the immunosuppressive TME to improve cancer treatment outcomes.