Albert Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Trials

Molecular Targeting of Cells Program

Laboratory Staff: Enrica Lerma, MD, PhD, Yanzheng Liu, PhD, Jonathan Maynard, De Jun Sun, PhD, Yucheng Tang, MD, PhD, Linda Nyberg

The Deisseroth laboratory has established a leadership position in the field of genetic therapy through its pioneering of the use of chemoprotection of stem cells and chemotherapy sensitization for the treatment of cancer cells. For the past four years, this laboratory has been using molecular biology, combinatorial chemistry, and vector engineering to develop several new strategies of targeting therapy to cancer cells.

The Deisseroth laboratory is supported by the National Cancer Center for the use of combinatorial and computational chemistry to develop small molecular weight chemicals for the inhibition of oncoprotein tyrosine specific kinases in leukemia. The laboratory is supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for the development of adenoviral vectors which carry a tumor specific promoter driving either a chemotherapy sensitization transcription unit or the viral E1A replication gene to create a conditionally replication competent adenoviral vector which is directly cytolytic to tumor cells. The laboratory has also created a double transcription unit vector which is tumor specific. It is experimenting with a novel design of adenoviral vectors which can confer antigen specific activation of the immune response. These vectors can induce with a single subcutaneous injection immunity to cancer cells which can confer resistance to the engraftment of tumor cell lines for up to a year. This work is supported by the US Army.

Recently, a new vector approach to cancer vaccines has been developed. The Deisseroth laboratory is collaborating with Dr. Alan Garen's laboratory of Yale University which has designed a novel vector mediate tumor vascular targeting strategy for the treatment of cancer. This is supported by the NIH. The Garen laboratory placed a transcription unit for the tumor vascular targeting protein in a replication incompetent adenoviral vector. Dr. Deisseroth will put this vector into a clinical trial in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center/Sharp HealthCare Clinical Trials Network I San Diego. This trial will be the only one of its kind when it is launched in 2004. As shown in Figure 2, this protein turns a vascular tumor into a white, bloodless avascular tissue. This trial, which is called the icon trial, will be launched this year in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center/Sharp HealthCare Clinical Trials Network. This effort is supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute to Drs. Deisseroth and Garen for the support of this clinical trial.

For more information about this new therapy, click here to link to Dr. Deisseroth's recent publication in PNAS.