AGORA Cancer Research Center

AGORA was inspired by the vision that the integration of progress in cancer research into clinical practice can be accelerated by bringing together interdisciplinary research teams of clinicians, cancer biologists, immunologists, bio-informaticians and bio-engineers. Initiated by the ISREC Foundation in 2013, the AGORA building was opened in 2018. The functioning of this translational cancer research center reflects a partnership between the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL), the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE).

Latest news

Events

You are invited: AGORA Apéro | June 4th

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Events

Lola and John Grace Distinguished Lecture in Cancer Research, Prof. David Pellman | June 4th

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Events

AGORA PRS Seminar | June 9th

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Events

PhD Thesis Defense | June 12th

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Events

PhD Thesis Defense | June 24th

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News

New Leadership at UNIL Department of Fundamental Oncology

Highlighted publication

Checkpoint blockade and the stem-like T cell trade-off.

Mazet JM, Joyce JA

Molecular oncology – 2026 Apr 20

News

Professor Michal Bassani-Sternberg awarded the Robert Wenner Prize 2026

Highlighted publication

Resolving sensitivity, specificity and signal contamination in Xenium spatial transcriptomics.

Bilous M, Buszta D, Bac J, (…), Peters S, Homicsko K, Gottardo R

Nature methods – 2026 Apr 30

Events

Join AGORA PhD & Postdoc Association

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Highlighted publication

Insights into a long life without cancer: The case of the bowhead whale.

Paniagua I, Joyce JA

Molecular oncology – 2026 Apr 10

Highlighted publication

Cancer ecosystems: A dynamic interplay across scales.

Quail DF, Joyce JA

Cell – 2026 Apr 16

Past news

Latest publications

Tumor-targeted interferon-α gene therapy for glioblastoma: a phase 1 trial.

Gentner B, Eoli M, Farina F, (…), Russo C, Ciceri F, Naldini L

Nature medicine – 2026 Jun 1

Selection of human hematopoietic stem cells bearing the intended functional edit by transient AND-gate reporters.

Canarutto D, Fiumara M, Venkatesan V, (…), Genovese P, Ferrari S, Naldini L

Nature biotechnology – 2026 Jun 1

Ex Vivo Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells from Human Mobilized Peripheral Blood for Gene Therapy Applications.

Zonari E, Naldini MM, Barcella M, (…), Di Micco R, Montini E, Gentner B

Molecular therapy – 2026 May 26

Using Human-Centered Design to Build a Peer-Support Network for People Living with Chronic Diseases.

Scholich M, Jonniaux S, Santini S, (…), Pataky Z, Michielin O, Ehrler F

Studies in health technology and informatics – 2026 May 21

Reliable Enough? Benchmarking LLMs for Clinical Concept Extraction.

Pignat J, Liakopoulos P, Bonjour J, (…), Gaudet-Blavignac C, Cuendet MA, Michielin O

Studies in health technology and informatics – 2026 May 21