SPECIALISMS:

• T cell gene engineering

• ATMP manufacturing

• Pre-clinical tumor immune therapy models

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Biography

Trudy Straetemans obtained her PhD at the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam. There she was trained as a tumor immunologist and explored T cell receptor gene engineering strategies against cancer in pre-clinical models. As a post-doctoral fellow she started in 2012 in the laboratory of Prof Dr Jürgen Kuball, who invented the TEG concept, alpha/beta T cells Engineered to express a Gamma/delta T cell receptor. She improved and translated the TEG concept from pre-clinical strategy until a GMP-proof gene and cellular medicine. As a result, TEG001 is at this moment tested in a phase I safety study at the UMC Utrecht and GADETA, a UMC Utrecht spin-off company, has been founded.

Currently, Straetemans is leading the TEG001 production team producing the autologous gene therapy medicinal product in close collaboration with the Cell Therapy Facility at the UMC Utrecht.

She dedicates her career to use her translational expertise to improve translation of cellular and gene therapy medicinal products into the clinic.

RESEARCH TOPICS

• TEG001 phase I clinical study: manufacturing and immune monitoring

• Development of gene and cell engineering strategies

• Manufacturing of next generation Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products

TOP 5 MOST RELEVANT RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• Straetemans T, Janssen A, Jansen K, Doorn R, Aarts T, van Muyden ADD, Simonis M, Bergboer J, de Witte M, Sebestyen Z, Kuball J.
  “TEG001 Insert Integrity from Vector Producer Cells until Medicinal Product.” Mol Ther. 2020 Feb 5;28(2):561-571. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.11.030.

• Straetemans T, Kierkels G, Doorn R, Jansen K, Heijhuurs S, dos Santos J, van Muijden A, Vie H, Clemenceau B, Raymakers R, de Witte M, Sebestyen Z and Kuball J.
  “GMP-grade manufacturing of T cells engineered to express a defined gdTCR.” Front Immunol 2018 9:1062. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.01062

• Johanna I, Hernández-López P, Heijhuurs S, Bongiovanni L, de Bruin A, Beringer D, van Dooremalen S, Shultz LD, Ishikawa F, Sebestyen Z, Straetemans T, Kuball J. “TEG011 persistence averts extramedullary tumor growth without exerting off-target toxicity against healthy tissues in humanized HLA-A*24:02 transgenic mice.” J Leukoc Biol. 2020 Feb 5. doi: 10.1002/JLB.5MA0120-228R

• Straetemans T, Johanna I, Heijhuurs S, Aarts-Riemens T, Norell H, Bongiovanni L, De Bruijn A, Sebestyen Z and Kuball J.
  “Evaluating in vivo efficacy – safety profile of TEG001 in humanized mice xenografts against primary human AML disease and healthy hematopoietic cells. J Immunother Cancer 2019 12;7(1):69. doi: 10.1186/s40425-019-0558-4.

• Straetemans T, Gründer C, Heijhuurs S, Hol S, Slaper-Cortenbach I, Bönig H, Sebestyen Z and Kuball J.
  “Untouched GMP-ready purified engineered immune cells to treat cancer”. Clin Can Res 2015; 21(17):3957-68.
  

GRANTS AND AWARDS

• 2024: KWF research grant: Targeting head and neck cancer with a next generation of TEGs, co-PI Straetemans – 727.561 euro

• 2021: KWF research grant: CAR-T PACMAN, co-PI Straetemans – 3.239.462 euro

• 2021: KWF infrastructure for translation of gene and cell therapy DARE-NL: Dutch platform for cancer-specific ATMP research – project leader Straetemans – 5.3 mio euro

• 2021: Groeifonds: Pilotfabriek voor regeneratieve geneeskunde van RegMed XB – 12 mio for Innovation Center Advanced Therapies – UMC Utrecht
  GMP-simulator unit – Straetemans

• 2020: Title: Immunotherapy: Target identification across different tumor types Immune-Oncology program funded by Princess Máxima Center and UMC Utrecht Project leaders prof. dr. Josef Vormoor and prof. dr. Jürgen Kuball - 2.500.000 euro. Coordinator UMCU and WP5 – Straetemans

• 2019: KWF research grant: Continuity of a phase I study to investigate TEG001 cell treatment in patients with r/r AML/high-risk MDS or r/r MM.

• 2019: Elected to attend the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine’s Annual International Certificate Program.

• 2017: KWF research grant: Targeting leukemia with next generation of engineered immune cells: TEGs, co-PI.

• 2010: Travel award from the Cellular Therapy of Cancer Symposium 2010, Montpellier, France - PhD travel grant, Trustfonds Erasmus University, Rotterdam

• 2008: PhD travel grant, Dutch Society for Immunology - PhD travel grant, Trustfonds Erasmus University, Rotterdam

CLINICAL STUDIES

A phase I study to investigate the safety and tolerability of TEG001 cell suspension for infusion in r/r AML/high-risk MDS or r/r MM