Daan van Helvoort
Research:
My doctoral research investigates how intracellular aminopeptidases shape the antigenic landscape presented to the immune system. While CD8⁺ T cells can destroy tumor cells by recognizing surface-bound MHC-I peptide complexes, a mechanism leveraged by personalized mRNA neoantigen vaccines for cancers like melanoma and cervical cancer, vaccine efficacy is limited by our ability to predict which peptides will be presented. Although the proteasome generates the initial pool of intracellular fragments, roughly 99.9% are rapidly degraded by cytosolic peptidases. Despite this massive regulatory role, the specific contributions of aminopeptidases to antigen processing remain poorly understood. By characterizing these enzymes, my project aims to refine (neo-)antigen prediction algorithms in order to advance the development of next-generation personalized immunotherapies.
CV:
In 2025, I completed my Master’s degree in Biomedical Science, specializing in Immunology & Host Defense, at Radboud University, which followed my Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Over the course of my studies, I have specialized in T-cell research and cancer immunotherapy, having worked in both academic and industrial settings. I have completed several key research internships. During my Bachelor's internship at the LUMC Gastroenterology Department, I studied peptide presentation in human T-cells after oncolytic reovirus infection, examining immune responses to potentially enhance therapy effectiveness. My first master internship, at the TCR-Immunology group (LUMC) focused on IL-18 co-stimulation in human CD8 T-cells subsets. My second master internship was at Galapagos where worked on T-cell phenotyping of the drug product in order to be able to optimize culture conditions. In my literature thesis I reviewed the interplay between the microbiome and cancer immunotherapy.
