Disease Focus: Breast Cancer
A Phase I Study of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Engineered Stem/Memory T Cells for the Treatment of HER2-Positive Brain Metastases
Breast cancer is the second-most common cancer in women, both in the United States (US) and worldwide. Some types of breast cancer have a high likelihood of metastasizing to the brain, meaning there are tumors in the brain that have spread from the original site of the breast cancer When that happens, there are few treatment […]
Stem Cell-based Disease Modeling Shared Resource Laboratory
Our Shared Resource Laboratory will expand access to stem cell-derived models to support research and educational programs with two main goals: democratize access to state-of-the-art models and technology among a diverse scientific community and catalyze innovation in regenerative medicine. This Shared Resource Laboratory will expand access to stem cell-derived models to regions of Southern California […]
Developing a breast cancer stem cell drug
Research Objective To make a drug that kills breast cancer stem cells Impact Metastatic breast cancer is incurable. The goal is to make a drug leading to cures Major Proposed Activities Make a novel drug that potentially more effectively treats breast cancer with less toxicity Test the drug for efficacy and toxicity Breast cancer is […]
Reversal of dysregulated myelopoiesis in breast cancers and cancer stem cells to boost antitumor immunotherapy
Research Objective A new antiestrogen drug will be developed to stop breast cancer (BC) by direct effects on BC cells including stem cells and indirect action on specific procancer immune cells that surround the cancer. Impact Substantial numbers of patients with localized breast cancer (BC) and essentially all patients with advanced BC become resistant to […]
Development of a novel stem-cell based carrier for intravenous delivery of oncolytic viruses
Research Objective Develop a stem cell-based platform that safely and efficiently delivers viruses that specifically kill tumor cells and restore immune activity in patients with advanced cancer. Impact Overcome the inherent limitations that prevent efficient intravenous delivery of tumor killing viruses to metastatic tumors. Major Proposed Activities Compare the relative efficacy of native or cargocyte-delivered […]
A Rapid Clinical Digital Patient-derived Organoid to Guide Breast Cancer Treatment Decision
Translational Candidate The digital patient organoid (DPO) assay is a microfluidic miniature organoid technology that allows high-throughput drug testing. Area of Impact Our functional DPO assay will guide personalized therapy in patients with MBC and fulfill a gap of huge unmet need Mechanism of Action DPO is a microfluidic miniature organoid technology that enables breast […]
Specific Targeting Hypoxia Metastatic Breast Tumor with Allogeneic Off-the-Shelf Anti-EGFR CAR NK Cells Expressing an ODD domain of HIF-1α
Translational Candidate EGFR-CAR_sIL15 NK cells derived from CD34(+) umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells Area of Impact patients with metastatic breast cancer, especially HER2-low breast cancer Mechanism of Action EGFR-CAR_sIL15 NK cells are umbilical cord blood-derived CD34+ HSCs that are engineered to target EGFR and express soluble IL-15, and then are differentiated into NK cells. […]
A Phase I Study of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Engineered Stem/Memory T Cells for the Treatment of HER2-Positive Brain Metastases
Therapeutic Candidate or Device Autologous naïve-stem/memory T cells engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor targeting the HER2 antigen (HER2BBζ-Tn/mem) Indication HER2-positive brain and/or leptomeningeal metastases, primarily from breast cancer Therapeutic Mechanism The proposed therapy aims to provide a safe and effective treatment option for patients with HER2-positive cancers that have metastasized to the central nervous […]
Allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells loaded with oncolytic virus for cancer treatment
Therapeutic Candidate or Device Supernova-1 (SNV1): Allogeneic adipose-derived culture expanded mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSC) loaded with oncolytic vaccinia virus Indication -Metastatic melanoma -Triple negative breast cancer -Advanced Head & Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Therapeutic Mechanism SNV1 will induce direct killing of cancer cells and will modify the tumor microenvironment, converting immunologically "cold" umors into "hot" […]