Bassani lab
Our main goal is to identify clinically relevant cancer specific Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) ligands that will guide the development of personalized cancer immunotherapy using state of the art proteogenomics and mass-spectrometry (MS) approaches. In the clinic, we aim to integrate, for the first time, mass-spectrometry-based immunopeptidomics into the innovative translational clinical strategy of personalized immunotherapy within the Department of Oncology. ...
Research projects
Immunopeptidomics
- We develop proteogenomics and MS-based immunopeptidomics analytical and computational approaches to identify HLA ligands derived from tumor-associated proteins, mutated neoantigens, non-canonical ORFs and post translationally modified peptides.
- We have initiated fundamental discovery work to elucidate how tumor cells present antigens and what are the bases of tumor immunogenicity in mouse and human.
- We are investigating the differences between T cell inflamed and non-inflamed tumors in terms of antigen presentation and the antigenic landscape and how drugs modulate the immunopeptidome.
- We have established a continuous bioinformatics pipeline called NeoDisc enabling direct and personalized identification and prediction of neoantigens by combining genomic information derived from exome-seq analysis and transcriptomics data with measured immunopeptidomics data.
- We apply our discovery pipeline in the context of phase I clinical vaccine and adoptive T cell therapy trials at the CHUV to identify personalized neoantigens from patient tumor samples.
Latest publications
Translon: a single term for translated regions.
Świrski MI, Tierney JAS, Albà MM, (...), TRANSLACORE, Valen E, Baranov PV
Nature methods – 2025 Sep 1
Defects in antigen processing and presentation: mechanisms, immune evasion and implications for cancer vaccine development.
Huber F, Bassani-Sternberg M
Nature reviews. Immunology – 2025 Aug 8
Sensitive neoantigen discovery by real-time mutanome-guided immunopeptidomics.
Shapiro IE, Huber F, Michaux J, Bassani-Sternberg M
Nature communications – 2025 Aug 7
Myeloid cell networks govern re-establishment of original immune landscapes in recurrent ovarian cancer.
Ghisoni E, Benedetti F, Minasyan A, (...), Fotopoulou C, Conejo-Garcia JR, Laniti DD
Cancer cell – 2025 Jul 22
Circulating tumor-associated and neoantigen-specific endogenous T cells in children treated for B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Huwiler E, Thierry AC, Michaux J, (...), Bassani-Sternberg M, Harari A, Ceppi F
HemaSphere – 2025 Jul 7
Phage display enables machine learning discovery of cancer antigen-specific TCRs.
Croce G, Lani R, Tardivon D, (...), Hebeisen M, Dunn SM, Gfeller D
Science advances – 2025 Jun 11
Team
Michal Bassani-Sternberg
Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Group leader Human integrated tumor immunology discovery engine (Hi-TIDe), Department of Oncology, Head of clinical mass spectrometry unit, Center of experimental therapeutics UNIL & CHUV, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Lausanne
BassaniLabOther members
Selected Publications
Machine learning predictions of MHC-II specificities reveal alternative binding mode of class II epitopes.
Racle J, Guillaume P, Schmidt J, (...), Bassani-Sternberg M, Harari A, Gfeller D
Immunity – 2023 Mar 30
Bedside formulation of a personalized multi-neoantigen vaccine against mammary carcinoma.
Mohsen MO, Speiser DE, Michaux J, (...), Coukos G, Bassani-Sternberg M, Bachmann MF
Journal for immunotherapy of cancer – 2022 Jan
Reversion analysis reveals the in vivo immunogenicity of a poorly MHC I-binding cancer neoepitope.
Ebrahimi-Nik H, Moussa M, Englander RP, (...), Mandoiu II, Bassani-Sternberg M, Srivastava PK
Nature communications – 2021 Nov 5
Identification of tumor antigens with immunopeptidomics.
Chong C, Coukos G, Bassani-Sternberg M
Nature biotechnology – 2021 Oct 11
Sensitive Immunopeptidomics by Leveraging Available Large-Scale Multi-HLA Spectral Libraries, Data-Independent Acquisition, and MS/MS Prediction.
Pak H, Michaux J, Huber F, (...), Müller M, Coukos G, Bassani-Sternberg M
Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP – 2021 Apr 9
CIITA-Transduced Glioblastoma Cells Uncover a Rich Repertoire of Clinically Relevant Tumor-Associated HLA-II Antigens.
Forlani G, Michaux J, Pak H, (...), Linnebacher M, Accolla RS, Bassani-Sternberg M
Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP – 2021 Jan 6
Biogenesis of HLA Ligand Presentation in Immune Cells Upon Activation Reveals Changes in Peptide Length Preference.
Marino F, Semilietof A, Michaux J, (...), Coukos G, Müller M, Bassani-Sternberg M
Frontiers in immunology – 2020 Aug 28
Deciphering the Mechanisms of Improved Immunogenicity of Hypochlorous Acid-Treated Antigens in Anti-Cancer Dendritic Cell-Based Vaccines.
Graciotti M, Marino F, Pak H, (...), Harari A, Bassani-Sternberg M, Kandalaft LE
Vaccines – 2020 Jun 2
Integrated proteogenomic deep sequencing and analytics accurately identify non-canonical peptides in tumor immunopeptidomes.
Chong C, Müller M, Pak H, (...), Ohler U, Coukos G, Bassani-Sternberg M
Nature communications – 2020 Mar 10
Editorial: Novel Strategies for Anti-Tumor Vaccines.
Accolla RS, Buonaguro L, Melief C, Rammensee HG, Bassani-Sternberg M
Frontiers in immunology – 2020 Jan 17
Mass Spectrometry Based Immunopeptidomics Leads to Robust Predictions of Phosphorylated HLA Class I Ligands.
Solleder M, Guillaume P, Racle J, (...), Coukos G, Bassani-Sternberg M, Gfeller D
Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP – 2019 Dec 17
A Phase I/II trial comparing autologous dendritic cell vaccine pulsed either with personalized peptides (PEP-DC) or with tumor lysate (OC-DC) in patients with advanced high-grade ovarian serous carcinoma.
Sarivalasis A, Boudousquié C, Balint K, (...), Harari A, Bassani-Sternberg M, Kandalaft LE
Journal of translational medicine – 2019 Nov 26
Immunopeptidomics of colorectal cancer organoids reveals a sparse HLA class I neoantigen landscape and no increase in neoantigens with interferon or MEK-inhibitor treatment.
Newey A, Griffiths B, Michaux J, (...), Cunningham D, Bassani-Sternberg M, Gerlinger M
Journal for immunotherapy of cancer – 2019 Nov 18
Robust prediction of HLA class II epitopes by deep motif deconvolution of immunopeptidomes.
Racle J, Michaux J, Rockinger GA, (...), Jandus C, Bassani-Sternberg M, Gfeller D
Nature biotechnology – 2019 Oct 14
A Phase Ib Study of the Combination of Personalized Autologous Dendritic Cell Vaccine, Aspirin, and Standard of Care Adjuvant Chemotherapy Followed by Nivolumab for Resected Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma-A Proof of Antigen Discovery Feasibility in Three Patients.
Bassani-Sternberg M, Digklia A, Huber F, (...), Harari A, Demartines N, Kandalaft LE
Frontiers in immunology – 2019 Aug 8
Related news
Events
PhD Thesis Defense | August 14th
Events
AGORA PRS Seminar | June 24th
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🌱 Second AGORA Sustainability Day | May 21st
Events
LabLinks: Tumor immunology and immunotherapy | November 11&12th
Events
13th Faculty & Staff Annual Retreat, Swiss Cancer Center Leman | September 26 & 27
Events
Ludwig Distinguished Lecture, Prof. Yardena Samuels | May 30th
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AGORA PRS | March 12th
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