Contact

Laure Harinck
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ghent University
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Gent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 264 8047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8365 (direct)
E-mail: laure.harinck@ugent.be

Biography

Subsequently, she obtained her master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Care in 2021 with great distinction. Laure performed her master’s thesis, titled: “Optimization of a powder-based solid dosage form of TNF-α siRNA-loaded lipidoid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles designed for pulmonary delivery” at the Laboratory of Vaccine Design and Delivery, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In September 2021, she joined the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Koen Raemdonck.

Research interests

Nanomedicine, lipid nanoparticles, intracellular delivery of RNA therapeutics, endosomal escape, ex vivo T cell engineering.

Summary of Research Project(s)

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy involves the ex vivo manipulation of isolated patient T cells to target them specifically to tumors with improved potency. Current T cell engineering is based on stable transduction with viral vectors or transfection by electroporation, both of which come with serious weaknesses, related to manufacturing and toxicity. To avoid persisting side effects, transient T cell engineering with mRNA (e.g., encoding for CAR) and siRNA (e.g., for knockdown of negative T cell regulators) has been identified as a safer alternative to persistent genomic modifications. However, T cell engineering with RNA effectors depends on highly effective intracellular delivery technologies.

The research project of Laure consequently focuses on the design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that enable safe and highly effective delivery of both mRNA and siRNA cargo to primary human T cells ex vivo.