Immunologist Jeanette Leusen PhD (Center for Translational Immunology, UMC Utrecht) has been appointed as Professor of Antibody Therapy as of September 15th 2023 at Utrecht University/UMC Utrecht. The chair will be placed in the strategic research programs Infection & Immunity (research theme ‘developing immune-mediated therapy and prevention’) and Cancer (research theme ‘molecular and cellular science & therapy’).

Immunoglobulins or antibodies are crucial proteins in our defense against pathogens. They bridge the adaptive and the innate immune system, as they are produced by B cells, and activate complement, neutrophils, macrophages and NK cells. Lack of a proper antibody responses can cause severe infections. In addition, antibodies have been successfully used as therapeutics in multiple clinical settings. With the chair “Antibody Therapy”, Jeanette Leusen will continue her long line of research on different aspects of antibodies, including their mode of action via Fc receptors and complement, how they can prevent infections in neonates and how they can be utilized to treat cancer, infections and autoimmune diseases.

Research focus

Jeanette’s entry into the field of therapeutic antibodies and their modes of action began when she was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). She is actively involved in in vivo studies of therapeutic antibodies using several mouse models. Within the immunotherapy group, a unique panel of Fc receptor knock-out and transgenic animals has been developed and obtained over the past decades. Supported by grants from KWF and the American Institute for Cancer research (AICR), her lab has generated and characterized a new transgenic mouse reconstituting FcR expression but incapable of generating antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Interestingly, in both lymphoid and solid tumor models, therapy with several monoclonal antibodies was completely abrogated in a ADCC-deficient model. Last but not least, Jeanette Leusen strongly believes in immunoglobulin A (IgA) as a novel class of antibody for treatment of both malignant as infectious disease. In 2013 she published for the first time on the in vivo efficacy of IgA-based antibodies, a research line that continues today.

Valorization researcher

The chair will be highly investing in valorization: collaborating with industrial partners, obtaining Health Holland grants, preferably with spin-off companies of own research. Jeanette Leusen has an extensive track record in valorization. She has nurtured many collaborations with industry, filed patents and started a spin-off company. Jeanette Leusen is the first full professor that has been appointed as a Valorization Researcher, one of the six recently introduced academic career profiles at UMC Utrecht. The appointment of Jeanette to this ‘valorization chair’ ensures that UMC Utrecht colleagues will benefit from Jeanette’s experience with valorization in the future.

Jeanette Leusen says: “My motivation for immunological research is to bring inventions in the lab to the patient as soon as possible. With help of the Utrecht Holdings, our technology transfer office, we could file patents and start a spin-off company with exactly this purpose. Also, as workstream leader of Oncode Accelerator biologics, I can translate (basic) research into new medications. I would like to help any colleague that is interested in valorization, so please contact me”.

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Short bio

Jeanette Leusen (1966) received a master in Medical Biology at Leiden University and received her PhD degree in 1995 at the University of Amsterdam (Title of her thesis: Interactions between the components of the human NADPH oxidase : a novel about the intrigues in the phox family). She started her career as a scientist at UMC Utrecht in 1995 and became an associate professor and head of the immunotherapy group at UMC Utrecht in 2006, and subsequently head of the Utrecht Monoclonal Antibody facility (UMAB) in 2012. In 2018, she founded TigaTx, a US-based company that focuses on the development of immunoglobulin-based therapeutics for application in cancer. Currently, she functions as senior advisor in the TigaTx strategic advisory board. Jeanette has co-authored more than 140 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is inventor on 12 patent applications. Her group of 24 FTE (including 6 PhD candidates) works on the mechanism of action of therapeutic antibodies, with a special interest in IgA as a novel class of antibody for the treatment of both malignant as infectious disease.