The Pereira Lab researcher Sandhya Malla was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by Cancerfonden, the Swedish Cancer Society. The aim of Cancerfonden’s postdoctoral grants is to recruit successful young researchers that can significantly benefit cancer research in Sweden. Sandhya’s project was one of the awarded for a postdoctoral position with her project “Decoding The Regulatory Grammar of Transcription Factor-Mediated Immune Reprogramming”.

Last Feb 5th, the RESYNC consortium, coordinated by the Pereira lab, met in Prague (CZ) for a day of productive discussions on chemical reprogramming.

After defending his PhD last September, Pereira Lab alumnus Ervin Ascic was awarded the Best Doctoral Thesis of the Year 2025 in the field of cancer at Lund University.

We are delighted to share that our recent paper, “A combinatorial transcription factor screening platform for immune cell reprogramming” has been selected for the cover of the January issue of Cell Systems!

We are delighted to announce the publication of our article “A combinatorial transcription factor screening platform for immune cell reprogramming” in Cell Systems.

The project “In vivo Dendritic Cell Reprogramming as a New Immunotherapy for Glioblastoma” was awarded a Discovery grant from the ABTA, a non-profit organization that supports breakthrough research ideas for diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors. This organization and its grant programs are focused on improving quality of life for brain tumor patients and caregivers. Our project proposes testing type 1 conventional dendritic cell (cDC1) reprogramming as the next revolution in glioblastoma (GBM) treatment.

The Mats Paulsson Foundation for Research, Innovation and Societal Development awarded a research grant to the project “Advancing Reactive Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapy with Cellular Reprogramming”. Prioritizing scientific quality and innovation potential, the foundation supports research projects that tackle upcoming societal challenges and target market development in the healthcare sector. Owner of Medicon Village, the foundation’s goal is to promote scientific research in medicine and life sciences for the benefit of the Skåne County community.

Our paper “Anchored screening identifies transcription factor blueprints underlying dendritic cell diversity and subset-specific anti-tumor immunity” has been highlighted in the cover of the October issue of Immunity!

The researcher Peng Wei from Pereira Lab was awarded a SciLifeLab PULSE Postdoctoral Fellowship for the project SMARD—Small Molecule-Assisted Cell Reprogramming to cDC1. The SciLifeLab PULSE is a comprehensive Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Cofund postdoctoral program that funded 48 researchers to train them as future leaders in life sciences.

The Pereira Team is congratulating Ervin Ascic, who defended his PhD, entitled “Dendritic cell reprogramming for cancer immunotherapy”.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our latest article in Immunity, titled: “Anchored screening identifies transcription factor blueprints underlying dendritic cell diversity and subset-specific anti-tumor immunity.” In this study, the Pereira Lab presents a direct cell reprogramming approach to dissect the transcriptional logic behind dendritic cell (DC) diversity and to engineer subset-specific DCs with defined immunological functions. DCs are a heterogeneous family of antigen-presenting cells that play crucial roles in initiating and shaping anti-tumor immunity. They are traditionally divided into three main subsets: conventional DC type 1 (cDC1s), conventional DC type 2 (cDC2s), and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). While cDC1s are well known for their capacity to drive cytotoxic T cell responses and are associated with improved outcomes in many cancers, recent studies also suggest that cDC2s and pDCs contribute to anti-tumor immune responses, particularly in solid tumors such as breast cancer.

The researchers Margarida Brás and Daniel Oliveira from Pereira Lab were awarded with PhD studentships from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Their projects are focused on technologically advancing direct reprogramming platforms.

Last year, Ascic et al. (Science) demonstrated the potential of a new cancer immunotherapy modality: in vivo reprogramming of cancer cells into immunogenic type 1 conventional dendritic cell (cDC1)-like cells by the overexpression of transcription factors PU.1, IRF8, and BATF3 (PIB). As the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy relies on the action of cytotoxic T cell-activating cDC1s, there is a collective need to develop new methods to effectively generate this cell type. Our technology provided an alternative to generate cDC1s, enabling cancer cells to present antigens and promoting cytotoxic T cell responses and durable anti-tumor immunity.  

The Pereira Team is celebrating the end of two very exciting journeys: Luís Oliveira and Inês Caiado completed their PhDs, respectively entitled “Understanding Dendritic Cell Diversity with Direct Cell Reprogramming” and “Inducing Immunity with Direct Cell Reprogramming for Cancer Immunotherapy”.

The project Repro-TIL – “Breakthrough Neoantigen-specific Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapies Through Novel Dendritic Cell Reprogramming” – secures a Transition grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC). Coordinated by Asgard Therapeutics, this project joins the expertise of the Pereira Lab and Dr. Inge Marie Svane’s group at Herlev Hospital (Denmark).

The researcher Camille Chatelain from Pereira Lab was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to provide researchers with the tools to develop their own projects and advance their careers, while promoting excellence and innovation as prime values. Showcasing a valuable contribution to the field of immunotherapy, Camille Chatelain’s ExpandTILs was one of the selected 1696 projects among 10,360 applications.

Filipe Pereira is joining the SciLifeLab community as one of its Group Leaders – a set of key SciLifeLab members whose contributions to biology and technology promote excellence within the life sciences environment in Sweden and internationally.

The RESYNC project, a European Innovation Council-funded consortium coordinated by the Pereira lab, gathered in Turin (IT) last Feb 7th, for a full day of exciting scientific discussions, marking one year after its kick-off.

Filipe Pereira completed his PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2009 at Imperial College London, UK. He is now being awarded the prestigious Emerging Alumni Award for Imperial’s graduates with breakthroughs that placed them as “rising stars, innovators, game-changers and future leaders”. This award celebrates inspiring mentors and great leaders in their respective fields, who are unafraid of taking risks and collaborating to produce significant social impact and tackle global problems.

Luís Oliveira won the Forskar Grand Prix, securing the fifth win in a row for Lund University. The competition involves researchers from all over Sweden and the prize is awarded to the candidate who best presents their research in an engaging and entertaining way. At the final in Stockholm, Luís impressed an audience of 550 students, several of whom felt truly inspired and are considering a career in science.

The research study “Restoring tumor immunogenicity with dendritic cell reprogramming” was awarded with the Pfizer Award for Basic Research. The findings depicted in the Science Immunology publication in 2023 reported a strategy to overcome tumor evasion mechanisms by the cell fate reprogramming of tumor cells into dendritic cells.

Our team was awarded with a KAW project grant that aims to use dendritic cell reprogramming for neoantigen identification, forwarding an alternative to boost the efficiency of current immunotherapies based on vaccines and neoantigen-specific T cell therapies.

The Pereira Lab reports for the first time the in vivo reprogramming of cancer cells into type 1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1s). The study was published in Science and showcases a new cancer immunotherapy modality.

The researchers Beatriz Vaz and Mariana Gonçalves from Pereira Lab were awarded with PhD studentships from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Both PhD projects aim to surpass the limitations of current cancer immunotherapies, addressing different strategies to reprogram cancer cells into antigen-presenting type 1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1s), which are pivotal for anti-tumor immunity.

The Pereira Lab secures its third ERC grant with the project DART – “Driving Tumor Antigen Presentation by RNA-mediated Transdifferentiation.” The awarded project aims to develop an effective approach to perform RNA-based reprogramming of tumor cells into dendritic cells. DART is built on clinical and industry collaborations: Cristiana Pires and Fábio Rosa from Asgard Therapeutics, Anders Wittrup from Lund University, and Inge Marie Svane from Herlev Hospital in Denmark.

Pereira Lab researcher Camila Vazquez Echegaray was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by Cancerfonden, the Swedish Cancer Society.

The RESYNC project, a European Innovation Council-funded consortium, launched its Kick-off meeting on March 1st in Lund, Sweden.

The Pereira Lab was awarded 33 million SEK by the European Innovation Council, under the EIC Pathfinder call.

An international research project led from Lund University is now awarded 33 million SEK by the European Innovation Council, EIC Pathfinder. The idea behind the project is to use drugs to reprogram cancer cells into immune cells, in order to increase the body’s natural anti-tumor response and fight cancer. And it is small molecules that will do the work.

Filipe Pereira was awarded this year’s Fernström Prize for his work on reprogramming hematopoietic cells and immunotherapy development.

Pereira Lab researcher Ilia Kurochkin was awarded an Immuno-Informatics Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Cancer Research Institute (CRI).

The Pereira Lab was today announced as the receiver of a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

The Pereira Lab has been awarded with a grant of 6.000.000 DKK from the NovoNordisk foundation.

Pereira Lab researcher Diogo Cabral was awarded a Maria de Sousa PhD Studentship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Pereira Lab PhD student Rita Alves and postdoctoral fellows Ilia Kurochkin and Camila Vasquez were each awarded a grant from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund.

Pereira Lab group leader Filipe Pereira has been appointed Professor of Molecular Medicine, Regeneration, Transplantation and Repair in the Hematopoietic System at Lund University.

Pereira Lab researcher Camila Vazquez Echegaray was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship.

The Pereira Lab took part in a meeting held by Asgard Therapeutics AB, together with consortium members InSphero and Antineo, that sets the official kick-off to the earlier announced Eurostars project.

PU.1, IRF8, and BATF3 cooperation and role in inflammatory signaling during programming of human cDC1-like cells was uncovered at the Pereira Lab.

Asgard Therapeutics AB, a private biotech company spin off from the Pereira Lab, announces the completion of a EUR 6 million seed financing round. The financing was co-led by Novo Holdings, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Industrifonden.

On June 10th 2021, Fábio Rosa defended his thesis “Generating Dendritic Cells by Direct Cell Reprogramming. Merging cellular reprogramming with immunology towards the development of novel cancer immunotherapies.” with Prof. Thomas Graf from the Center for Genomic Regulation (Spain) as opponent.

Following on the legacy of Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, Filipe Pereira becomes the new Editor-in-Chief of the Cellular Reprogramming Journal.

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) has published the results for this year’s applications for consolidator grants, in which Filipe Pereira was selected for, in the scientific area of Medicine and health.

Pereira Lab researcher Luís Oliveira was awarded a fully funded 4 year scholarship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to develop his PhD-leading research.

The Pereira Lab has been awarded a grant from the Mats Paulsson Foundation for Research, Innovation and Societal Development on a project aiming at Harnessing Dendritic Cell Reprogramming for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Filipe Pereira was recently awarded with the KiiLN Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Award by the Keystone for Incubating Innovation in Life Sciences Network at the Icahn School of Medicine Innovation Awards.

Pereira Lab Cancerfonden postdoctoral fellow Olga Zimmermannova was awarded a grant from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, one of the Royal Academies promoting scientific progress in Sweden.

The project entitled “Understanding dendritic cell diversity with cell reprogramming” aims at a better comprehension of dendritic cell development, with interesting new possibilities in cancer immunotherapy.

Filipe Pereira was today announced as one of the 89 selected researchers by the European Research Council of its latest Consolidator Grant competition. He will be awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant of 2 million EUR over a period of five years. The project will merge the cell reprogramming and cancer immunotherapy fields to develop innovative therapeutic strategies.

Human skin cells have been converted successfully into blood stem cells at the Pereira Lab, bringing new therapies for people with blood diseases a step closer. This international project – including scientist from Sweden, USA, Russia, and Portugal – follows our previous research on the reprogramming of mouse skin cells into blood stem cells. In this study we shift our focus from the specification of mouse to human hematopoietic stem cells. We describe the generation of hemogenic precursors from human fibroblasts via an endothelial intermediate and highlight the general importance of transcription factor cooperation during human hematopoietic stem cell specification.

The Pereira Lab formally spun out Sweden-based immuno-oncology company called Asgard Therapeutics, aiming to be the first company in the world to develop a cancer therapy based on direct cell reprogramming. Asgard Therapeutics will develop cancer immunotherapies based on the properties of so-called dendritic cells, immune cells specialized in dissecting dangerous particles so killer white blood cells can recognise them as threats that must be destroyed. The approach, named TrojanDC, builds on findings from laboratory studies indicating that a formulation of three essential proteins, PU.1, IRF8 and BATF3, could be used to repurpose mouse and human skin cells as dendritic cells. Pereira Lab researchers Filipe Pereira, Cristiana Pires and Fábio are co-founders of the venture, together with Lund University Holding.

For the first time, the Pereira Lab has successfully reprogrammed mouse and human skin cells into immune cells called dendritic cells. The process is quick and effective, representing a pioneering contribution for applying direct reprogramming for inducing immunity. Importantly, this finding opens up the possibility of developing novel dendritic cell-based immunotherapies against cancer.

BioInnovation Institute and the Novo Nordisk Foundation have recently opened a call for the PreSeed program in all Nordic countries for start-ups and academic projects in therapeutics, health tech and biotech. Earlier this year, Filipe Pereira from Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at Lund Stem Cell Center received a PreSeed grant of 3.5 Million DKK for his project in dendritic cell therapy.

The Pereira Lab team has been covered on the Portuguese News on their published research on the origin of blood stem cells. The work published on Developmental Cell has captured the attention of Portuguese television and newspapers.