Disease Focus: Melanoma
Genetic Re-programming of Stem Cells to Fight Cancer
Science has made great progress in the treatment of certain cancers with targeted and combination therapies, yet prolonged remissions or cures are rare because most cancer therapies only inhibit cell growth and/or reduce such growth but do not stop the cancer. The study investigators propose to develop an Investigational New Drug (IND) and fully enroll […]
Genetic Re-programming of Stem Cells to Fight Cancer
Science has made great progress in the treatment of certain cancers with targeted and combination therapies, yet prolonged remissions or cures are rare because most cancer therapies only inhibit cell growth and/or reduce such growth but do not stop the cancer. The study investigators propose to develop an Investigational New Drug (IND) and fully accrue […]
Stem Cells for Immune System Regeneration to Fight Cancer
This proposal will define the biology of stem cell engineering to produce a cancer-fighting immune system. The immune system protects our body against most outside threats. However, it frequently fails to protect us from cancer. The T cell receptor (or TCR), a complex protein on the surface of an immune cell (or lymphocyte), allows to […]
Generation of clinical grade human iPS cells
The therapeutic use of stem cells depends on the availability of pluripotent cells that are not limited by technical, ethical or immunological considerations. The goal of this proposal is to develop and bank safe and well-characterized patient-specific pluripotent stem cell lines that can be used to study and potentially ameliorate human diseases. Several groups, including […]
Genetic Enhancement of the Immune Response to Melanoma via hESC-derived T cells
The overall goal of the proposed studies is to utilize human gene therapy approach using human embryonic stem cells to direct our body’s defenses to specifically attack melanoma tumor cells. Current technologies try to accomplish this by genetically manipulating certain circulating T lymphocytes, such that they will target tumor cells. T lymphocytes are the major […]
Stem-Derived IL13Ra2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cells for Patients with Melanoma and Advanced Solid Tumors
Genetic Re-programming of Stem Cells to Fight Cancer
There are few options for patients whose cancers have metastasized due to resistance to current therapies. This team is using gene editing technology to modify a patient’s own immune system cells and blood-forming stem cells with the aim of creating a continuous supply of immune cells that can recognize and attack hard-to-treat cancers.
Tumor stem cell-targeted immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma –a randomized phase 3 clinical trial.
NeoStem, which later changed its name to Caladrius BioScience, ran a Phase 3 trial targeting cancer stem cells. These cells are believed to be able to survive chemotherapy and other cancer-targeting treatments, and can cause a relapse by enabling tumors to grow and spread. This approach used the patient’s own tumor cells to create a […]
Vax-CT to promote formation of cancer-specific T memory stem cell for personalized cancer immunotherapy
Research Objective A vaccine booster to induce antigen-specific T memory stem cells that will help enhance the long-term immunity against cancer recurrence Impact Cancer recurrence presents an unmet medical need. Cancer vaccines are promising, but often lack a long-term protection. We will induce T memory stem cells (TMSCs) to boost the long-term immunity. Major Proposed […]
CAR-Tnm cell therapy for melanoma targeting TYRP-1
Translational Candidate Autologous naive/memory progenitor T cells genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor targeting the Tyrosinase-related protein 1 Area of Impact Patient with melanoma, without response or with relapse after immune checkpoint blockade therapy and patients with rare melanoma subtypes. Mechanism of Action T cells genetically modified to express the 20D7SL CAR detect […]