The programs at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) are led by Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., who is regarded as the "father" of dendritic cell technology by the international scientific community. His team has received numerous grants totaling millions of dollars associated with dendritic cell technology.

The research conducted at BIIR includes "winding-up" the patient's immune system by developing customized vaccines against the patient's cancer or infective organism, as well as "down-regulating" the immune system to reduce rejection of transplanted organs and treat autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Banchereau and his team achieved their most recent success through aggressive development and enrollment of patients in Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trials for metastatic melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. When injected into patients, the antigen-loaded dendritic cells are expected to ramp up patients' immune responses against their own tumors, thereby killing the cancer.

Post doctoral fellowship positions are available for recently graduated scientists desiring to study: human dendritic cells, the immune system and its disorders. Contact Us.