The research in our laboratory focuses on the designing and testing of novel vaccines against cancer and viral infections using murine and human assay systems. In a pioneering study, our group demonstrated that dendritic cells, pulsed with unfractionated total RNA isolated from tumor cells, stimulate tumor immunity both in murine tumor models and in vitro human assays. A large number of our pre-clinical strategies have been translated into Phase I clinical trials in cancer patients. The focus and challenge of our laboratory, both at the preclinical and clinical level, is to augment the clinical benefit associated with immunotherapy. Our long-term goals are as follows: (1) evaluate the combined effects of individual strategies, (2) extend the clinical exploration to multiple cancers, and (3) combine immunotherapy and immune modulation with targeted cytotoxic therapy (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotoxin therapy, and oncolytic poliovirus therapy).

Immunology, Inflammation, and Immunotherapy Laboratory