Thorbald van Hall

Thorbald van Hall has pioneered understanding of non-classical MHC molecule HLA-E and its receptor NKG2A as an immune checkpoint in cancer. His work demonstrated that tumors upregulate HLA-E to engage the inhibitory NKG2A receptor on NK cells and CD8+ T cells, representing a novel immune evasion mechanism. These findings led to the clinical development of monalizumab (anti-NKG2A) as a new checkpoint inhibitor for cancer immunotherapy.