Meet Dr Rodrigo Vazquez-Lombardi working on engineered cellular immunotherapies
The Peruvian-Australian researcher recently took up a Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his work on engineered cellular immunotherapies in Professor Sai Reddy's Laboratory.
Dr. Vazquez-Lombardi, what did you know about D-BSSE before you came here, and what was your motivation to come to ETH Zurich?
I knew about the D-BSSE through colleagues in Australia that told me about its excellent program in immuno-technology. This is not surprising if we consider ETH Zurich’s world-leading standing in science and technology. Coming to the D-BSSE was therefore an opportunity that I could not miss!
What were your expectations and were your expectations met since you arrived in Basel?
I must say that my expectations have been surpassed by reality. Although I have only been here for a month, the research environment at the D-BSSE is highly motivating and I’m excited to develop my research projects here. I haven’t seen much of Switzerland yet but I really love Basel. It is so easy to move around and there are so many cool spots in the city itself and surrounding nature.
What were your first impressions?
My first impressions about my group and the D-BSSE were extremely positive. Many of my colleagues work very hard but also have time to help others and socialize. I think that such a collegial environment fosters collaboration and boosts creativity – after all, research can sometimes be very frustrating!
Which research will you pursue at D-BSSE?
My projects are related to the development of immune cell therapies that are safer and more efficient against cancer. To achieve this, I will make use of next-generation sequencing and CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to generate engineered T cells that specifically destroy cancerous cells.
Which hobby or private interests do you hope to pursue in Switzerland?
While in Switzerland, I would like to continue swimming and skiing. I heard that one can swim in the Rhein in summer so I’ll give that a go! Considering that I only learnt how to ski last winter, it seems that I came to the perfect country to improve my (very modest) skills!
Thank you and all the best with your research!
Dr Rodrigo Vazquez-Lombardi is a Peruvian-Australian researcher specializing in cancer immunotherapy. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in molecular biology (2008) and Honours research thesis in tissue engineering (2009) at the University of Sydney (Australia). He then worked in the field of antibody therapeutics at Cephalon Australia (now Teva Pharmaceuticals) before completing his PhD at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (Sydney, 2016). During his PhD, he trained with Professors Daniel Christ and Jonathan Sprent to successfully develop engineered interleukin-2 proteins with enhanced properties for cancer immunotherapy (see article by Vazquez-Lombardi et al. 2017 published in Nature Communications). He is also an expert in the production of recombinant proteins and antibodies in mammalian cells (Vazquez-Lombardi et al. 2018, published in Nature Protocols). He currently holds a Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his work on engineered cellular immunotherapies in Professor Sai Reddy’s Laboratory for Systems and Synthetic Immunology.