Research
Research Projects
Research in my laboratory is focused on the following four main projects with emphasis on cancer therapy.
Graduate students and postdocs who are interested in our research projects, may email me directly to inquire about the opening positions.
1- Targeted Chemotherapy of Cancer
In this research, we engineer mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to actively migrate toward tumors and deliver potent chemotherapeutics directly to the tumor environment leading to increased anticancer efficacy and reduced toxicity to normal tissues (MSC-directed targeted chemotherapy). This approach generates high concentrations of potent anticancer drugs inside tumors resulting in the death of both fast-proliferating differentiated and slow-proliferating drug-resistant cancer cells. Please see our publication (Article 1) as an example:
2- Targeted Chemoimmunotherapy of Cancer
In this research, following the MSC-directed targeted chemotherapy, we administer natural killer (NK) cells to eradicate any remaining drug-resistant cancer cell that survived targeted chemotherapy. A manuscript has been submitted for publication which will appear here soon.
3- Antibody-Directed Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC)
In this research, we engineer Bispecific or Trispecific Killer Cell Engagers (BiKEs or TriKEs) to engage the NK cells leading to their activation and killing of target cancer cells. We have recently engineered a BiKE with high specificity and affinity (sub-nanomolar) toward CD16a receptor on NK cells without cross-reactivity with CD16b receptor on Neutrophils and CD32b on B cells. Similarly, our BiKE recongnizes HER2 on cancer cells with high specificity and affinity (sub-nanomolar). Our BiKE:CD16a/HER2 can kill HER2+ cancer cells more effectively than best-in-class FDA-approved anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab. Please see our publication (Article 3) as an example:
We have recently licenced our BiKE:CD16a/HER2 technology to Sauvie Inc. (https://sauvieinc.com/pipeline/) for further preclinical and clinical development. Licensing Announcement
4- Vector Development for Cell Engineering
In this research, we develop vectors for gene transfer into difficult to transfect cells including stem cells, NK cells, and T cells. Please see our publications (Articles 4 & 5) as examples: