LIH doctoral projects supported by the Pelican Grant

Three LIH PhD candidates awarded prestigious national award

• Department of Cancer Research
• Tumor Immunotherapy and Microenvironment
• Cytoskeleton and Cancer Progression
• Multiomics Data Science
• Donation

LIH doctoral students Wanxin Huang (Cytoskeleton and Cancer Progression – CCP), Maryna Chepeleva (Multiomics Data Science – MODAS) and Elisabetta Bartolini (Tumour Microenvironment – TIME) were bestowed the 2025 Pelican Grant from the Fondation du Pélican de Mie et Pierre Hippert-Faber to support training and mobility activities as part of their cancer research projects.

Wanxin Huang, doctoral student in the CCP research group of the LIH’s Department of Cancer Research (DoCR), is investigating how cancer cells protect themselves from the immune system. Under the supervision of Dr Clément Thomas, head of the CCP group, she is investigating the mechanisms that enable tumour cells to remodel their actin cytoskeleton to resist attacks from immune system cells such as CD8⁺ T cells and CAR-T cells. “As CAR-T immunotherapy has shown limited success in solid tumours, uncovering these resistance mechanisms is crucial for developing strategies that make these therapeutic approaches more effective for patients”, says Wanxin. As part of her research project, the Pelican Grant will support a 1.5-month stay in the group of Prof. Judith Feucht at the University of Tübingen, Germany, which is an international leader in the field of CAR-T cell therapy. While Wanxin’s current work focuses on immune evasion strategies against conventional CD8+ T cells, extending this investigation to CAR-T cells is crucial to determine the clinical relevance of her findings. “Thanks to the Pelican Grant, which is funding my research stay in Tübingen, I will be able to receive advanced training in CAR-T cell engineering, perform functional assays, and generate data that is directly aligned with the goals of my project. This experience is crucial to translating our discoveries into effective therapeutic strategies for cancer patients”, explains Wanxin.

Maryna’s research project, led by Dr Petr Nazarov from the DoCR’s MODAS group, aims to address a major challenge in cancer therapy, namely understanding the mechanisms of drug resistance. She is developing new computational methods to decipher how cancer cells adapt and survive treatment by integrating two complex levels of biological data: transcriptomics and metabolomics. The approach uses an advanced computational technique known as deconvolution to break down complex molecular profiles and isolate the key biological signals that drive resistance. The Pelican Fellowship funds an important one-month research stay at the internationally renowned Laboratory for Metabolism and Therapeutic Resistance in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (METAML) in Toulouse, France, led by Prof. Jean-Emmanuel Sarry. “I am very grateful to the Pelican Foundation for offering me this fantastic opportunity”, says Maryna. “This will give me direct access to unique and confidential patient data that is crucial for validating our computer models. This will significantly accelerate our research and increase its clinical relevance, contributing to the development of more effective strategies for overcoming drug resistance”, she adds.

Under the supervision of Dr Bassam Janji, head of the Tumour Immunotherapy and Microenvironment (TIME) group, Elisabetta is investigating how genetic targeting and pharmacological inhibition of the Vps34 protein can improve the efficacy of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma, a high-risk paediatric cancer that derives from neural-crest progenitor cells of the sympathetic nervous system, typically developing in the adrenal medulla or along the paraspinal sympathetic chain. This type of cancer, which is characterised by an increased number of copies of the MYCN gene, is fast-growing, spreads rapidly and is highly resistant to treatment. “This genetic abnormality is a strong indicator of poor prognosis and is associated with an altered tumour microenvironment that can compromise treatment efficacy and promote immune evasion”, explains Elisabetta. “In this context, I am grateful to the Pelican Foundation for covering part of the expenses of attending the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in San Diego, USA, one of the leading international conferences in the field of oncology. This will allow me to gain valuable insights into the latest advances in cancer research and treatment”, she concludes.

About the Fondation du Pélican

The Fondation du Pélican de Mie et Pierre Hippert-Faber was founded in 2010 by Pierre Hippert and is managed by the Fondation de Luxembourg. The foundation seeks to provide long-term support in the field of scientific and academic research, as well as in the area of the arts and letters. In particular, the foundation finances research projects at the University of Luxembourg by giving scholarships and/or purchasing equipment in biomedicine in order to promote research activities in Luxembourg and develop the reputation of the University in this field.

Since 2011, the Fondation du Pélican has been awarding the annual Pelican Grant to a number of PhD candidates affiliated with the Doctoral Programme in Systems and Molecular Biomedicine of the Doctoral School in Science and Engineering (DSSE) at the University of Luxembourg. This grant is meant for expenses related to training and professional development and can cover additional experiments, travel expenses to participate in conferences and training workshops, as well as short-term stays abroad as part of research collaborations.