JULY 1, 2026, NEW YORK – It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of three Clinical Scholars of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research: Bernhard Gentner and Caroline Arber at the Institute’s Lausanne Branch, and Christian Hinrichs of the Rutgers Cancer Institute, the clinical affiliate of its Princeton Branch.
In line with the wishes of its late founder, Daniel K. Ludwig, the Institute emphasizes the translation of its scientific discoveries into clinical interventions for cancer prevention and care. The Institute’s Branches are, in fact, required to establish partnerships with clinical facilities at the forefront of cancer care to ensure adequate support for such efforts.
Physician-scientists of the Ludwig Institute have been instrumental to advancing that core mission since the earliest days of the Institute. The Ludwig Breast Cancer Study Group convened in 1978 by the fledgling Institute’s researchers, for example, conceived, launched and ran for seven years a series of international clinical trials that, continued as the International Breast Cancer Study Group, shaped the post-surgical management of breast cancer.
But perhaps most notably, the pioneering work of Ludwig clinicians and scientists beginning in the 1980s-against the grain of prevailing orthodoxy-led to the identification of the first cancer antigens and the deep characterization of the anti-tumor immune responses they elicit. This immense, decades-long, transnational project helped lay the foundations of modern cancer immunotherapy and shored up the global capacity for its development. Ludwig researchers and alumni subsequently contributed enormously to the clinical development of immunotherapy, including that of immune checkpoint blockade therapies, and the formulation of clinical guidelines for their use. They continue to drive the development of a new generation of such therapies.
The Ludwig Institute’s newest Clinical Scholars are poised to carry on that proud tradition.
As associate professor in immune-oncology and attending physician within the Clinical Cell Therapy program at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Gentner has worked closely with the Lausanne Branch as an affiliated research scientist, where he participates in its Myeloid Cells in Cancer Initiative and will be playing a central role in the clinical translation of its discoveries. A hematologic oncologist, he has pioneered the genetic engineering of blood stem cells to cure monogenic diseases and that of myeloid progenitors to transform them into vehicles for innovative cancer immunotherapies. He has, with partners at other institutions, spun out a clinical-stage biotech company from the foundations of that research. The company’s lead product produced promising results in a recent early-stage clinical trial led by Gentner examining its efficacy against the brain cancer glioblastoma.
Arber, a practicing hematologic oncologist, is co-director of the Clinical Cell Therapy program at CHUV, where she established and leads a program for CAR-T cell therapy. As an associate professor and research group leader, she has worked with the Ludwig Lausanne Branch as an adjunct scientist since her recruitment to CHUV in 2017. Prior to joining CHUV, Arber developed co-engineering strategies for solid tumor TCR-T cell therapies that are now being evaluated in a phase 1b clinical trial with a commercial partner. In her own lab in Lausanne, she has led the development of a novel CAR-T cell therapy that is currently being prepared for a first-in-human clinical trial at CHUV. She also continues to explore next-generation T cell therapies, including those engineered for enhanced efficacy in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of tumors.
Finally, Christian Hinrichs, co-director of the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Cancer Immunology and Metabolism Center of Excellence at Rutgers Cancer Institute, is best known for his development of tumor-infiltrating T cell therapy for HPV-driven cancers-the first such therapy to induce sustained and complete therapeutic responses in epithelial cancers-as well as engineered T cell cancer therapies. He has been collaborating in studies on tumor metabolism and its interplay with immunotherapy with researchers at the Princeton Branch, a global leader in the fields of metabolomics and immunometabolism.
“It is very exciting to have physician-researchers of this caliber join our community,” said Ludwig Distinguished Clinical Scholar Jedd Wolchok, an authority on cancer immunotherapy and co-director of the Ludwig Collaborative Laboratory at Weill Cornell. “Given the remarkable pace of discovery across Ludwig Branches, they will find no shortage of translational research collaborations of outstanding potential to pick from as they settle into their new roles. Their appointment is not only timely but also likely to be of great benefit to the Institute and, ultimately, the cancer patients we aim to serve.”
