Neural Stem Cells
My translational research laboratory focuses on neural stem cells and their therapeutic applications for primary and metastatic tumors. Our novel findings have demonstrated the inherent tumor-tropic property of neural stem cells, and their use as cellular delivery vehicles to effectively target and disseminate therapeutic agents to invasive tumors, including glioma, neuroblastoma, breast carcinoma and melanoma. Their capacity for tracking infiltrating tumor cells and localizing to distant micro-tumor foci make neural stem cells a very novel and attractive gene therapy vehicle with tremendous clinical potential.
We use brain tumor and systemic solid tumor animal models to test intracranial and intravascular delivery of NSCs to target and disseminate various therapeutic agents to tumor sites. Our lab has many leading-edge, collaborative projects in progress. Our primary focus is on pre-clinical therapeutic and imaging trials (xenogen and MRI) of NSCs and gliomas – in order to move towards patient trials at City of Hope. We are also trying to identify the biological mechanisms and signally pathways involved in the directed migration of NSCs to tumor cells. We are collaborating with the Carlotta Glackin Laboratory to investigate NSC applications for metastatic breast cancer – to develop animal models, as well as novel lentiviral and adenoviral constructs for genetic engineering of stem cells to express various genes that may be used for cancer therapeutics. We collaborate with the Chu-Chih Shih laboratory to investigate the tumor-tropic potential of primary pools of neural and mesenchymal stem cells – toward future clinical use of allogenic and, ideally, autologous stem cells.
In addition to working toward therapeutic applications of NSCs for invasive cancers, we also collaborate with the Michael Barish laboratory to investigate the origin, development and progression of gliomas, as well as the endogenous stem cell response to intracranial tumors and injury. Comparison of endogenous vs. donor neural stem cells will also be explored in relation to tumor and brain injury.
The field of stem cell research is still quite new – there are many exciting directions of investigations to pursue in order to better understand their function and development, with a wide array of potential clinical applications to explore. Our lab offers a unique experience for interested students – with exposure to many laboratory techniques, including stereotactic animal surgery, tissue processing and immunocytochemistry, fluorescent microscopy, xenogen imaging, molecular biology, RT-PCR, cell culture, and flow cytometry studies.