Seal, Rishav

Name: Rishav Seal

PI: PD Dr. Friederike Berberich-Siebelt

Institute: Institute for Pathology

Funding: SFB TR221

Project: Selective inhibition of the transcription factor NFAT in mitigating graft-versus-host disease with small molecules inhibitors: Calcineurin inhibitors block NFAT activation and protect patients from graft-versus-host disease during bone marrow transplantation. On the other hand, they exert adverse side effects and interfere with the valuable graft-versus-leukemia effect. In contrast, NFAT deficiency maintains graft-versus-leukemia activity, although still protecting from graft-versus-host disease in mouse models. Therefore, my primary goal is to evaluate prospective NFAT inhibitors in vitro and to test in our routine mouse models mitigating GVHD without impairing the GVL effect and ultimately making it a prospective candidate for a future clinical pilot trial.