Dr Kun-Hui Lu
Biography
Kun-Hui is an immunologist by training with their expertise on adaptive immunity mediated by T cell and B cells. They received their master’s degree through studying B cells and autoantibodies in murine model for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). With full PhD stipend from the Helmholtz Society, Kun-Hui moved to German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and completed their PhD training in Heidelberg University. In one of the PhD projects, Kun-Hui focused on how mesenchymal stem cells modulated tumour immunology. In the other project they studied how Nck adaptor proteins regulated the functions of follicular helper T cells and their interaction with B cells for optimal antibody responses to model antigens. After finishing their PhD training, Kun-Hui worked in Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam for CRISPR-based screening projects on immune checkpoint receptors in melanoma before moving to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. From 2017 to 2019, Kun-Hui carried out projects demonstrating how inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatases could enhance T cell, particularly chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell, -mediated anti-tumour responses in breast cancer models. In 2020 Kun-Hui joined Goel laboratory. Since then, Kun-Hui has been leading projects to understand the impact of CDK4/6 inhibitors on T cell-mediated anti-tumour responses in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as other immunotherapy including CAR-T cells.