Henning Walczak and his team join the Cancer Institute

Professor Henning Walczak and his team have joined the UCL Cancer Institute.

Professor Walczak chairs the new Centre for Cell Death, Cancer and Inflammation (CCCI) at the Institute. His team, which is funded by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, the European Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Association for International Cancer Research, is internationally recognised for its work on cell death and inflammation, specifically focussing on the biology of death receptor-ligand and the ubiquitin systems.

The aims of Professor Walczak’s research are to develop new therapies for cancer on the basis of the concept of directly and specifically inducing programmed cell death in cancer cells and new therapeutic options for patients suffering from auto-immunity based on the concept that different forms of cell death differentially stimulate the immune system.

Following his PhD in 1995 at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg (Germany), Professor Walczak worked as a postdoc at Immunex Corporation in Seattle (WA, USA), before returning to the DKFZ as group leader in 1998.  In 2007 he was appointed Chair of Tumour Immunology at Imperial College.

He has an ERC Advanced Grant and holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award.