Camilla Jandus MD PhD
Tenure-track Assistant Professor
Camilla is from Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino: the most southerly and Italian speaking Canton in Switzerland. Her private and professional life is driven by a healthy curiosity and desire for innovation, taking inspiration from the phrase, “normal is boring.”
Camilla graduated in 2003 from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern, her medical degree included 6 months as a research fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and the attainment of a MD thesis from the Institute of Pathology in Bern. She completed her MD-PhD training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne, before returning to Bern for 2 years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Pharmacology Institute. In 2012, she was appointed as an Associate Investigator at the Ludwig Center for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne. She progressed on to become a group leader in the Department of Oncology at the University of Lausanne, supported by a prestigious Ambizione Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). After a 1-year SNSF PRIMA Assistant Professorship in the same department, she was appointed as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Janaury 2020, in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, University of Geneva. Since 2019, she has also held the role of Adjunct Scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne.
Camilla’s main scientific interest is in using cutting-edge technologies to study T cell- and Innate Lymphoid Cell (ILC)-mediated immune responses to human tumors, in order to develop next generation cancer immunotherapy.
Outside of the lab, she enjoys her family and children, she likes travelling, playing music, and cheering for her favourite hockey team, HC Ambrì Piotta.
Sara Trabanelli PhD
Research Associate
Born in Italy in 1980, Sara graduated in 2005 from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Insubria, where she discovered her passion for immunology. In 2006 she moved to Bologna where she made amazing friends and, one year later gained a PhD fellowship, thanks to her master’s degree in dendritic cell biology. In 2010 she was awarded her PhD in Clinical and Experimental Hematology and Hematopathology at the Institute of Hematology “L. & A. Seragnoli”, at the University of Bologna, which involved working on immunological aspects of acute myeloid leukemia. During her PhD, she gave birth to her first child, Mattia, in 2009, and her second child Zoe arrived in 2011 during her first postdoc.
In 2012, Sara moved to Lausanne to start working with Camilla Jandus on newly identified rare and potent cells: the Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs). Together with Camilla, Sara developed several projects focused on ILCs that have resulted in publications, grant awards, and ultimately in her coming to the realisation that she has found her scientific home at the right hand of Camilla.
To relax, Sara loves to play piano, to wander and to take pictures. Whilst in Italy she used to play volleyball and coach a volleyball team, whereas in Switzerland she skies and enjoys the thermal baths. Sara loves to travel, to discover new cultures and new places. She really likes to cook and is defined by her non-Italian friends as an “extremist” of Italian cuisine, simply because she is horrified when they want to put cream in the carbonara!
Alejandra Gomez Cadena MSc PhD
Maître Assistante
After completing her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at the Denis Diderot University in Paris, Alejandra decided to dive deeper into the field of immunology, and she obtained her master’s degree in this subject in 2011 from Paris-Est Créteil University. During the last six months of her master’s degree she had the opportunity to go back home to start her internship in the laboratory of Professor Susana Fiorentino in Colombia. She also completed her PhD in Biological Sciences here with a special interest in tumor immunology. During her Master’s and PhD theses she studied the mechanism of action and therapeutic potential of natural complex fractions in order to scientifically validate traditional knowledge and the use of herbal medicine by native communities. During her PhD thesis she once again had the opportunity to do a 1-year international internship that she completed in 2016 in the laboratory of Professor Pedro Romero at the University of Lausanne. Since then, she has joined the Jandus Lab where she has been working on the role of Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs) in different preclinical cancer models. Her professional background has allowed her to learn different languages, visit and live in different countries and meet people from around the world. In her spare time she likes to visit new places and always carries her camera with her. She enjoys watching a good football match with a beer at the weekend and, like any other Colombian, going out for a dance!
Margaux Saillard PhD
Post-doctoral fellow
After being awarded a technical degree in Biotechnology in 2015, Margaux went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2016 and a master’s degree in Pharmacology in 2018 at the University of Strasbourg. As part of her study, she had the opportunity to do three internships. The first internship involved a project preventing gene interference and optimizing levels of expression of constitutive TCR/CAR through inducible 6xNFAT mediated expression. The second internship was completed during her master’s degree, in the laboratory of Biophotonics and Pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg, which entailed studying the role of FAK protein in tumor invasion in human melanoma cells. The third internship in 2018, allowed Margaux to develop a high-throughput pMHC multimer synthesis for high dimensional CD8 and CD4 T cell specificity readouts including: miniaturization of the peptide-MHC refolding reaction, improvement of combinatorial staining by flow cytometry, and high-throughput peptide-MHC binding analysis. In May 2019, she started her PhD in the ‘Jandus Lab’ where she works on innovative cancer immunotherapy, harnessing quasi-universal tumor antigen-specific CD4 T cells. When she’s not working, Margaux likes hiking in the Swiss mountains, cooking for her friends and playing the piano.
Anthony Cornu
Lab Technician
Anthony has always been fascinated by biology and has a real passion for the technical skills used by research laboratories in academia. As the development and optimization of experimental protocols requires great rigor and a good dose of creativity, he is well suited to this role. He was convinced at the very young age of 16, to take the CFC Biology Laboratory training course at the University of Geneva, which he successfully completed in 2011. Always in search of new knowledge and challenges, he was pursuing his career in different Academic and Federal laboratories until, in 2017, he found a place in the laboratory of the TCSL Group where the team spirit and desire to overcome many challenges are never lacking.
Tania Wyss Lozano Hoyos PhD
Bioinformatician
Tania originally trained as a molecular biologist in Switzerland. She went on to do a PhD about the interactions between plants and micro-organisms by running field experiments under the hot Florida sun in the USA. Back in Switzerland, but this time in the wet lab, she held a postdoc position investigating the genetics of fungi and learned to analyze data generated by next generation sequencing techniques. She enjoyed learning about bioinformatics so much that a new career path opened up. Having discovered the power of combining biology with methods of data analysis, Tania is now discovering the new world of immunology and the endless possibilities that exist to advance research in this amazing field. She is currently analyzing the genomics data generated by the group of Camilla Jandus.
Hajar El Ahanidi PhD
Post-doctoral fellow
Hajar obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Rabat, Morocco, where she lived and studied until the second year of her PhD. Then, she was awarded a Fulbright Joint Supervision scholarship to work with Pr. Steven Fiering group at Geisel School of Medicine at Datmouth college for one year, and shortly after, for another 12-month Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship to accomplish part of her PhD thesis in Prof. Jandus’ lab.
Throughout the time she spent in different labs, in addition to fundamental and technical knowledge, Hajar experienced different know-how and developed her transferable skills. Just before defending her thesis, Hajar was awarded the ‘Women in Science’ prize in the ‘Young Talent’ category as recognition for her scientific ambitions.
Hajar re-joined the Jandus lab for a post-doctoral journey where she will continue working on her PhD topic, in the optic of improving the therapy and the quality of life of bladder cancer patients.
Besides her lab life, Hajar loves to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds and is a huge fan of world’s gastronomy (tasting more than cooking). The perfect combo for her would be a tasty dinner followed by movies’ night.
Julien Montorfani
PhD Student
Julien comes from a small village near Lugano, a beautiful city in the italian speaking region of Switzerland. He was trained as a lab technician in the “Laboratorio cantonale” in Bellinzona, where he mainly worked with bacterial cultures. After passing the complementary federal exams to pursue his studies in higher education schools he worked for half a year in a laboratory at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich (DE). He then moved to Geneva, where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Biochemistry. Because of his great interest for immunology, he carried out three internships in three different laboratories of the department of Pathology and Immunology of the University of Geneva. During his last project he studied the impact of the lymphatic system on tumor progression in Professor Stéphanie Hugues laboratory. He is now working on the development of anticancer therapeutic bispecific antibodies under the joint lead of Professor Camilla Jandus and Dr. Limin Shang, director of Pharmacology at Light Chain Bioscience SA.
In his spare time, Julien enjoys sports, outdoor activities, travelling and cooking. He is particularly passionate about climbing, skiing, hiking and mountaineering.
Benedetta Fiordi Msc
PhD Student
Benedetta is from a small city near the Alps, Sondrio, Italy. Her curiosity in biology and medicine grew thanks to an exchange experience in the United States during high school. To deepen these interests, she attended Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, graduating in Medical Biotechnology. In her master thesis internship, she studied intrinsic and extrinsic properties of leukemic cells to understand how these exploit mechano-transduction pathways to translate bio-mechanical signals derived from the microenvironment, all of this with the intent of identifying new therapeutic and prognostic targets. Throughout the university years, she got keen on lab work especially thanks to researchers met in the way, who have always shown her the beauty of this job. She had the opportunity to learn fundamental laboratory practices but also more specific techniques like 3D models cultured in rotary bioreactors, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and also basic animal models manipulation. She enjoys learning languages, watching movies or series and, like all Italians, loves cooking for herself but mostly for others: being around a table chatting with cared ones is her favorite thing in the world
Ziyang Su Msc
PhD Student
Ziyang is from China. He obtained a master degree in Immunology at Capital Medical University. His project in China was mainly about epigenetic regulation of the development and function of NK cells in the mouse, during which he was trained for wet lab tech and learned dry lab tech by himself. Utilizing human samples, Jandus lab is focusing on all ILC subsets and their interaction with the adaptive immune system. It is the perfect place where Ziyang could develop his career in Medical Science during his PhD thesis. Switzerland is new for him, so he is trying to explore the city of Geneva and learn French in his spare time.
Danaé Guedj, MD
MD-PhD Student
Danaé was born and raised in Geneva. She began studying medicine in 2013. During her internships, she became fascinated by oncological surgery and decided to specialize in ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and Head & Neck surgery. Her ENT training began at the HUG in 2020. Then, a 1-year ENT internship in Neuchâtel only deepened her passion for ENT oncology. For her, understanding the pathophysiology of cancers is crucial for optimizing current treatments.
In line with deepening her knowledge in this field, she met Camilla and they established a compelling MD-PhD project, co-directed by Dr Christiane Eberhardt, on unraveling the function of CD4 T cells in HPV-driven tumors.
In her spare time, she enjoys socializing over drinks. Additionally, every day she plans to go for a workout, even if this plan rarely comes to fruition.
Georgia Papadopoulou, Mpharm
PhD Student
Georgia was born in Greece. Her scientific curiosity led her to study Pharmacy at the University of Patras, Greece. While pursuing her diploma, she engaged in multiple learning activities spanning from pharmacology, biotechnology and immunology to pharmaceutical analysis and technology. She spent five years studying and conducting research, focusing on molecular biology and genetics, pharmacogenomics and cell biology. She supported, as an instructor, science communication activities and participated in several projects in the Laboratory of Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, including the publication of two academic articles. During her diploma thesis, she gained experience with biomedical databases and in silico tools while investigating the role of IL21 AS1 Gene in the Occurrence of Comorbidity in Patients with Crohn’s disease in combination with other autoimmune diseases.
Because of her great interest in neuro-immunology, in 2024, she started her doctoral studies at the University of Geneva, where, under the supervision of Camilla Jandus, she is working on the topic of Cognitive Immunity, a new paradigm of neuro-immune modulation. Her goal is to contribute to the research efforts in the field of neuro-immunology and open novel perspectives to develop related biomedical or clinical applications.
Besides her lab life, she enjoys watching films, reading books and travelling. She believes that impossible is nothing!
Daniela Maresca
PhD Student
Born and raised in the sunny city of Naples, Daniela has always been driven by a passion for science and a mission to make a positive impact on the world. As a child, she was often found with her nose buried in “Exploring the Human Body”, dreaming of curing cancer (a little scientist in the making!).
In 2021, Daniela graduated with top honors from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Naples “Federico II”. Her academic journey took a pivotal turn when she met Dr. Giuseppe Ercolano, who introduced her to the fascinating world of Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs) and cancer research. Currently, Daniela is a PhD student in “Pharmaceutical Sciences” at the University of Naples “Federico II” with a focus on Cancer Immunology. Recently, she joined as a 1-year visting PhD student the Jandus Lab to puruse her ILC-centered research.
Outside the lab, Daniela is an avid traveler with a love for discovering new places and cultures. She’s a devoted animal lover (although she is terribly afraid of insects) and never misses a chance to indulge in some delicious chocolate... which she tries to burn off by dancing salsa and bachata. Music and concerts are her lifeblood, while spas and outings with her friends are her ultimate relaxtion retreats. Known for her impeccable origanizational skills, Daniela ensures that every aspect of her life is meticulously planned. With a blend of passion, curiosity and zest for life, Daniela is always ready to embrace new adventures and challenges.
