VALERIA MANRIQUEZ

I am a post-doc in the Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Institute Curie. The focus of my project is to study the immune context of Rhabdoid tumors, a malignant cancer of infancy. In particular, we are interested in understanding how to modulate T or myeloid cells in order to generate immunotherapies that can be more effective and less aggressive than current treatments.

My scientific development started in Chile, where I investigated the mechanisms involved in the reprogramming of regulatory T cells into Th17 cells in order to apply this knowledge in the treatment of diseases with opposing immune characteristics such as autoimmune diseases and cancer. Later, I did a PhD at Institute Pasteur where I had the opportunity to study the cells of the innate immune response in a context of Neisseria meningitidis infection, generating information needed to avoid the high mortality associated with this human pathogen. In general, my research interest is mainly focused in understand the immune responses in different context in order to generate the knowledge that allows to develop new therapies to diverse pathologies, being my focus today the treatment of cancer.