LABORATORY OF
CELL STRESS & IMMUNITY

Prof. Garg is Research Associate Professor at Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine and Group Leader of the Laboratory for Cell Stress & Immunity at KU Leuven (Belgium). He did his post-doctoral research at KU Leuven (2012-2018), combined with research visitations at University of Helsinki, Finland (2013) and De Duve Institute, Belgium (2017-18), after receiving his PhD from KU Leuven (2012). During his PhD-postdoc, he played an instrumental role in elucidating novel and/or pioneering mechanisms that make cancer cell death immunogenic in the context of anticancer therapy. He worked on uncovering the links between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy, apoptosis/necroptosis and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) or danger signals in dying cancer cells i.e., immunogenic cell death (ICD). This resulted in creation of innovative dendritic cell (DC) vaccines against glioblastoma. 

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His lab focusses on studying the cell stress-immunity cycle in cancer by applying novel reverse translational approaches (i.e., human data-informed pre-clinical research), to create next-generation (personalised) immunotherapy solutions against hard-to-treat tumours. His lab strives to constantly pave the way for the forward translation of these innovative solutions toward the clinic. For this, his lab is working closely with oncologists (at hospitals, both home & abroad), biotech entrepreneurs, research valorization managers/platforms and various biotech or pharma stakeholders. 

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More than 70% of Prof. Garg's publications have been published in the top 25% journals and/or are amongst the top 25% most cited articles world-wide (Scopus, 2025). This has contributed to his ranking amongst: world's top 1-2% highly cited researchers (Stanford/Elsevier 2020-24; Clarivate 2023), top 5 most-cited researchers for ICD research (Zhou et al. Front Pharmacol 2022), and world’s best scientists in 'Biology & Biochemistry' (Research.com). His research contributions have been recognized by: AstraZeneca Foundation Award (2025), 41st Prix Galien Award (2023), KU Leuven Research Council Award (2016), European Society of Photobiology (ESP) Young Investigator Award (2013), European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) ST Fellowship (2013), FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013-18), FWO-McKinsey & Company Scientific Prize (2012), KU Leuven Post-doctoral Mandate (2012-13), and Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme (2007-08).