Professor Salim Khakoo and his group are currently developing ex vivo systems for hepatocellular cancer in order to test their response to different immunotherapies.

They are currently working on natural killer (NK) cell responses to cancer focusing on 3D models of hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer. they have begun to test a number of different 3D models, including spheroids, microspheroids, alginate models and organoids. These models are part of collaborations that they have with Liku Tereza, Nicole Prior and Bjorn Ornfelt (KTH Institute of Technology). The models are used to test their novel NK cell therapeutic strategies by co-culturing NK cells, which have been activated using different methods in these 3D models.