ERC Starting Grant goes to Dr. Sebastian Kobold, LMU
11.08.2017 - The European Research Council funds talented early career scientists. LMU won five grants, one of them has been granted to the project ARMOR-T
Dr. Sebastian Kobold is attending physician and head of a research group in the division of clinical pharmacology at the university hospital of the LMU Munich. His main research focus relates to cancer immunology and more specifically to adoptive cellular therapy.
Sebastian Kobold investigates the interactions between tumors and cells of the immune system. He develops innovative methods in which genetically modified T-cells enhance the capacity of the immune system to fight tumors.
In his project “ARMOR-T” funded by the European Research Council, he will equip T-cells against cancer using two strategies: he will use a novel platform of proteins which he has developed with his team. On the other hand, he will apply genetic modifications to T-cells. This combination should result in enhanced therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models. While the main focus of the project is pancreas carcinoma, the results will be applicable to other types of cancer.
After he completed his medical education in 2007, Sebastian Kobold pursued his training in the clinic of hematology and oncology at the medical center of Hamburg-Eppendorf and joined the university hospital of the LMU in 2010. There, he combined his clinical training with establishing an experimental research group at the division for clinical pharmacology. In 2013, he went to the USA as a visiting scientist and worked on new therapeutic antibodies at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In 2014, Sebastian Kobold habilitated at the medical faculty of LMU.
