Affiliation: University College London, Great Ormond St Hospital, Zayed Centre

Dr. Barisa works with the Experimental Paediatric Oncology and Allogeneic Immunotherapy Research Groups at the Zayed Centre of UCL GOS ICH. She specializes in cancer immunotherapy development, particularly in pediatric solid tumors. The solid tumor microenvironment remains a major obstacle to achieving therapeutic success. Her work evaluates different ways to target and re-polarise the solid tumor microenvironment, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, checkpoint blockade, and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. This modulated tumor microenvironment is then targeted with in-house designed gene-engineered cell therapies that include autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-αβT cells and allogeneic CAR- or opsonin secreting (OPS)-γδT cells. Her team aims to build complete preclinical data packages of solid tumor-targeting cell therapy combinatorial approaches for rapid translation into the clinic.