News
Eralda Kina: Combining Research and Clinical Practice
Published on October 29, 2025
Eralda Kina is an oncologist and doctoral student in the laboratory of Claude Perreault, Principal Investigator in IRIC’s Immunobiology Research Unit. Claude Perreault’s team studies the cells that regulate the functioning of the immune system, known as “T lymphocytes,” in order to understand and improve the functioning of the immune system. The team’s ultimate goal is to develop therapeutic vaccines against cancer.
Throughout her career, Eralda has chosen to focus her research projects on the most common cancer in the world: breast cancer. Specifically, she is seeking to identify targets on the surface of tumor cells that will activate the immune system. “Our immune system is paralyzed by cancer. We need to bring it out of its state of shock and give it the tools it needs to fight it,” she emphasizes. “Immunotherapy has the potential to transform incurable and widespread cancers into well-controlled and even curable cancers!”
On a more personal level, it was her work as an oncologist that prompted her to become actively involved in research. Often faced with having to break the news of metastatic breast cancer for which there is no cure, Eralda Kina wanted to help change things.
“Telling patients, some of whom are very young, that all we can do is prolong their lives without being able to eradicate the cancer—that’s a very heavy burden to bear over time. The frustration on both sides in the face of such a grim prognosis motivated me to roll up my sleeves and get to work—alongside all my exceptional colleagues at IRIC—to gradually change the landscape of breast cancer.”