This course will discuss the development of a gene-therapy strategy that enables the human body to fight malignant brain cancer and, potentially, other solid cancers by employing a highly disabled virus to deliver therapeutic cargoes. Genetically engineered viruses (vectors) kill the cancerous tumor cells and elicit an anti-tumor immune response. The presenter will also discuss the preliminary results of the Phase I clinical trial at the University of Michigan – the first-in-human, first-in-the-world clinical trial using two different gene-therapy vectors.
Maria G. Castro, instructor, is the R.C. Schneider Professor of Neurosurgery, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Program Director of the Cancer Biology Training grant at the University of Michigan Medical School. She dedicates her research to novel treatments for adult and pediatric brain cancer, including immune-mediated gene therapy. This Study Group is for those 50 and over and meets Friday, 3:15–5:15 pm on December 6.