Research:

My current research activities focus on the preclinical and clinical development of vaccines designed to prevent adult-onset cancers such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and endometrial cancer. My prototypic strategy for developing cancer prevention vaccines is based on the “retired self-protein hypothesis" whereby tissue-specific proteins that are no longer expressed in normal tissues as a result of the natural aging process may induce safe and effective prophylactic vaccination against age-related emerging tumors that express the targeted “retired” protein.

 

We are currently involved in a phase I clinical trial sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense to determine the safety and dosage of a vaccine ultimately designed to prevent triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer and the version of breast cancer that predominates in women at high genetic risk due to carrying mutations in their BRCA1 genes. We also have a collaborative agreement with the National Cancer Institute’s PREVENT Program to enter clinical trials ultimately designed to determine the ability of our ovarian cancer vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. Supporting all of this publicly supported work are licensing agreements with Anixa Biosciences, Inc. to facilitate commercialization of these two vaccines.

Finally, my program has also developed a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits the growth of human ovarian tumors in patient-derived  xenografts and may be useful in treating human ovarian and endometrial cancers either directly or as an immune reagent for delivering a toxic 

 .payload to tumor cells

Current Programs: Primary Immunoprevention of  Adult-Onset Cancers

• Breast Cancer

• Ovarian Cancer

• Endometrial Cancer

• Cancer Immunotherapy