Research centers on the identification and evaluation of potential immunogenic proteins specific for solid tumors to be used in the diagnosis and prevention (through immunotherapy) of human malignancies. Major projects include: (1) development of tumor antigen specific vaccines for the prevention…
more of solid tumor relapse, (2) generation and characterization of cytotoxic CD8+ and CD4+ helper T cells specific for tumor antigens for eventual use in adoptive immunotherapy to treat advanced stage disease, (3) evaluation of antibody responses to various cancer causing proteins for use as a potential cancer diagnostic, (4) development of biologically relevant animal models for solid tumors to assess the effect of the generation of an immune response to immunogenic cancer proteins and to evaluate different vaccine and adoptive immunotherapy strategies, (4) phase I clinical trials of peptide and DNA vaccines targeting specific cancer antigens, (5) phase I clinical trials of infusion of antigen competent T cells in patients with advanced stage solid tumors, (6) antigen discovery in solid tumors using molecular immunology and protein based techniques, and (7) development of in vivo imaging techniques for tracking tumor specific T cells and assessing the response to tumor specific immunotherapy.
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