Investigator: Dr. Judith Bovee

Country: Netherlands

Institution: Leiden University Medical Center

Project: Leveraging natural immunity in chordomas for tailored immunotherapy

Award: $200K

Description: This research focuses on how chordoma tumors evade the immune system, aiming to reveal ways to harness the body’s natural defenses against the disease. By using advanced imaging and cellular analysis, the team is building a detailed map of how immune cells and tumor cells interact. This map could eventually allow doctors to predict how a patient’s tumor will respond to immunotherapy using non-invasive scans. The goal is to use this knowledge to develop new treatments that boost the immune system’s ability to fight chordoma, offering more effective, personalized therapies for patients. This project is being co-funded with the Cancer Research Institute.