Sascha Rutz

I have been studying how T cells regulate and balance their production of pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive cytokines, with a particular focus on the IL-17 and IL-10 families of cytokines. I joined Genentech as a Postdoc in 2009 and uncovered pathways for the transcriptional regulation of IL-22, a cytokine critical for host defense at mucosal surfaces and tissue repair. I quickly became interested in how the ubiquitin system controls various aspects of T cell biology at the post-translational level, examples of which are the role of the deubiquitinase DUBA as a cell-intrinsic suppressor of IL-17 production, and the essential function of BAP1 for thymic development and proliferation of T cells. In addition to uncovering new biology, I have always been eager to develop and adapt new technologies to study T cell immunity. Recently, the advent of single cell sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing has fundamentally changed our ability to monitor and manipulate immune responses.

In 2014, I started my own research program in the Department of Cancer Immunology applying cellular immunology, single cell sequencing, gene-editing, proteomics, and mouse models to study anti-tumor T cell immunity. My group currently focusses on regulatory T cell biology and T cell therapies. I also maintain a strong research interest in the regulation of T cell immunity by the ubiquitin system.