Yusuf Topal

I completed my PhD in 2018 at the UCL-Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health where I developed a lentivirus-based gene therapy approach to treat and restore immune function in X-linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis (XIAP) patient immune cells. XIAP deficiency is a life-threatening primary immunodeficiency that usually affects boys in early childhood and currently the only curative option is bone marrow transplantation, which is associated with high risks. My PhD research is now progressing towards clinical trials at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and we hope this will serve as a safer alternative treatment option for patients with XIAP deficiency. 

In my current research, I am using laboratory-based experimental models of inflammation and cancer to study ubiquitin-dependent cellular immune responses. I am interested in how immune cells respond to pathogens and infection leading to inflammation, and how these mechanisms are disturbed in life-threatening autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, as well as cancer.