Pierre Coulie

Major achievements

• Identification of a number of human tumor antigens now used in cancer immunotherapy.
• Description of how the first anti-cancer therapeutic vaccines initiated tumor regression in some patients.

Question

What is the mechanisms of BCG therapy against bladder cancer?

Research focus

Patients with bladder cancer are often treated with intravesical instillations of Bacillus Calmette Guérin (BCG), which is the vaccine against tuberculosis. Even though this treatment has been used for decades, its mode of action is unclear, making it difficult to predict which patients will respond or to improve the treatment. Using tissues collected from patients before and after BCG therapy, we explore the role of T lymphocytes, a type of immune cells, during BCG therapy.

Another work of the lab involves interleukin-1ß (Il-1ß), a potent inflammatory cytokine (a kind of hormone used by immune cells to send signals to neighbouring cells). While it is well known that IL-1ß can be released by dying cells, we and others have observed that it can be released also by living cells. The mechanism of this release, which is distinct from classical 'secretion', is unknown. We have set up an in vitro model to understand this pathway, which may be important during chronic inflammatory diseases.

Finally, we have a collaboration with the Intensive Care Unit of the Cliniques Universitaires St Luc to understand the cause of the immunosuppression that is observed in patients that survive 'sepsis', a life-threatening inflammation that can occur after an infection.

Pierre G. Coulie, MD PhD, was until 2022 Full Professor of Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of the UCLouvain. Trained as an immunologist at the de Duve Institute, he worked with Prof. Jacques Van Snick on autoimmunity and cytokines. In 1988 he joined the group of Prof. Thierry Boon to work on human tumor immunology. Investigator at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research from 1989 to 1995, then Research Associate with the FNRS, he made important contributions to the identification of human tumor-specific antigens recognized by T lymphocytes and to the understanding of the mechanisms of tumor regression in the early days of cancer immunotherapy. Pierre Coulie is an expert on the antigenicity and immunogenicity of human tumors.

Honors

• 2019 : Elected President of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium
• 1998 : Prize of the Fondation Alexandre et Gaston Tytgat
• 1993 : Annual prize of the Maggy & Robert de Hovre Foundation

Affiliations

• Group Leader, de Duve Institute
• Chairman of the Board, Fondation contre le Cancer/Stichting tegen Kanker, Brussels, Belgium