Nathalie Rufer

Nathalie Rufer obtained her PhD in immunology from the University of Geneva in 1996 focusing on histo-incompatibilities after bone marrow transplantation. She carried out her postdoctoral work at the Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver (Canada), specializing in the biology of human T lymphocytes. In 2001, she joined the Swiss Institute for Cancer Research (ISREC, Lausanne, Switzerland) and became group leader in 2003, then from 2009 onwards at the centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois (CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland). In parallel, Nathalie Rufer obtained her federal diploma in clinical medicine in 2012 at the university of Lausanne (Switzerland), then her specialization (FMH) in hematology in 2021. In 2007, she became private docent at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of UNIL, until her appointment as associate professor in 2021. As a specialist in onco-immunology, hematology and transfusion medicine, Nathalie Rufer studies immune responses to tumors in order to improve T-cell therapy in the fight against cancer. Her profile as a medical researcher, combined with her biomedical expertise, is also part of the innovative program of cell-based therapies, such as adoptive transfer of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) or genetically engineered T cells (CAR-T cells), set up by the Department of Oncology UNILCHUV, in collaboration with Transfusion Interrégionale CRS.