"Extracellular vesicles in immunooncology, medical diagnostics and therapy" – lecture by Prof. Whiteside

Prof. Piotr Widłak, Director of the Clinical Research Support Centre, Prof. Natalia Marek-Trzonkowska from the Division of Family Medicine, and the Administration Department for the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” Program are the organizers of an open lecture by T. L. Whiteside, Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, entitled “Extracellular vesicles in immunooncology, medical diagnostics and therapy. The meeting will be held under the honorary patronage of the rector of GUMed, Prof. Marcin Gruchała.

The event will be held on June 1, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. in the Prof. Olgierd Narkiewicz Auditorium at the Atheneum Gedanense Novum only. No prior registration is required for the event.

Speaker profile: Prof. Theresa L. Whiteside is a world authority in the field of cancer immunology and immunotherapy, for many years working at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the leading universities in the USA.

Born in Poland in 1939, Prof. Whiteside majored in biology at Columbia University in New York, where she received her Ph.D. in microbiology in 1967. Since 1973, she has conducted research in the Departments of Pathology, Immunopathology, Otolaryngology and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, holding the titles of Professor of Pathology (1989), Otolaryngology (1993) and Immunology (2002). At the same time, for over 25 years she was a head of a translational laboratory preparing vaccines and cells for biological therapies for cancer patients.

Professor Whiteside’s laboratory at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh is currently conducting research in immuno-oncology on deciphering immune-tumor interactions and mechanisms of tumor escape from immune surveillance, as well as developing new therapeutic approaches and refining existing immunotherapeutic protocols. In recent years, her research has focused on tumor-derived microvesicles/exosomes and their role in tumor-induced immunosuppression. Her scientific achievements include over 600 original works and over 120 reviews, monographs, textbooks and chapters (these works have been cited over 20,000 times, index-H 82).