Disease Focus: Solid Tumors
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 cell-based carriers for RCR vector delivery to glioblastoma
Modified viruses can be used to infect tumor cells and alter the tumor cell to make anti-tumor proteins. Most researchers use virus that can infect and modify the tumor cell it enters, but can not make more of itself to infect additional cells surrounding the original infected cell. This type of virus is called replication-incompetent […]
The role of neural stem cells in cerebellar development, regeneration and tumorigenesis
Stem cells have the remarkable ability to renew themselves and to generate multiple different cell types. This allows them to generate normal tissues during development and to repair tissues following injury, but at the same time, renders them highly susceptible to mutations that can result in cancer. Only by understanding the signals that control growth […]
Epigenetics in cancer stem cell initiation and clinical outcome prediction
Cancer is responsible for approximately 25% of all deaths in the US and other developed countries. For women, breast and lung cancers and for men, cancers of prostate and lung are the most prevalent and the most common cause of deaths from cancer. While a large number of treatment modalities such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation […]
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 […]
Stem Cells in Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the most deadly cancer worldwide and accounts for more deaths than prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer combined. Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. The current 5-year survival rate for all stages of NSCLC is only 15%. Although early stage lung cancer has […]
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 […]
hESC as tools to investigate the neural crest origin of Ewing’s sarcoma
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) hold great promise as sources of tissue for regenerative medicine and therapeutics. In addition, their utility as tools to study the origins and biology of human disease must not be underestimated. hESC give rise to tissue-specific adult stem cells and, ultimately, to all mature tissues in the body. As such, […]
Stem Cell-Mediated Oncocidal Gene Therapy of Glioblastoma (GBM)
Brain tumors (BTs) are incurable, whether they start in the brain or spread there from other sites. Despite advances in surgical, radiation, pharmacologic, and gene therapies, survival with a BT remains dismal. Current therapies are limited by their inability to reach widely disseminated tumor cells that become dispersed within normal brain structures. Interestingly, the therapeutic […]