In the following video Dr. Cooper discusses with Dr. Pappanicken Kumaresan (Kumar), his groundbreaking research in developing CAR-T cells to treat infectious diseases. Kumar used the Sleeping Beauty gene transfer system to modify T cells in hopes of fighting major life-threatening infections caused by invasive Aspergillus fungus. Patients who have had chemotherapy and/or stem cell therapy transplants have compromised T-cell function are at risk for opportunistic fungal infections. Mortality associated with invasive Aspergillus remains unacceptably high. The transplants are used to treat cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Kumar developed a novel approach to restore immunity by using a fungal pattern-recognition receptor Dectin-1 to redirect T-cell (D-CAR) specificity to sugar (carbohydrate) antigen in the fungal cell wall. In future this new approach of targeting sugar molecules could be used to target other dangerous pathogens as well. Kumar completed his PhD in Clinical Biochemistry at University of Madras, India, followed by post-doctoral training in the Department of Molecular Immunology at University of North Texas Health Science Center. His research career included time as Assistant/Associate Professor (Research) at UC Davis School of Medicine, California. Presently he is a Research Scientist in the Cooper lab in Pediatric Cancer Research at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas. Results of the study appear in journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1312789111 pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1312789111/-/DCSupplemental
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 22:53:25 +0000
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