I am the Vice Chair of Faculty Development in the Department of Surgery, and Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Surgery at City of Hope Cancer Center. I also run the Division’s CAR T-cell. Presently I manage and serve as the PI for a $10 Million major gift grant to accelerate the investigation of ovarian cancer at our center. I lead a team of seven scientists, and we collaborate on different projects that converge in the use of immunotherapies targeting ovarian cancer as well as developing a chicken ovarian cancer model to test CAR T-cell therapies and identify new targets. As an investigator, I have collaborated on several clinical trials in gynecologic oncology as a PI or Co-PI, some of them are investigator initiated. I have recently published our Phase I clinical trial using selenium as an agent to counteract drug resistance to platinum. I have previous DOD funding to study drug resistance in tumors specifically breast cancer with similar results seen in ovarian cancer. This work has led to an investigator initiated clinical trial, which is ongoing, where we target CD44 to counteract drug resistance. My RO1 funding included the elucidation of mechanisms of action of CD44 and its role in multi-drug resistance.
I have been collaborating with Dr Hua Yu since joining City of Hope in 2019. Our collaboration stemmed from our common interest in CD44-STAT3 interaction. We have co-published multiple articles on the role of STAT-3 in PARP inhibitor resistance in ovarian cancer. We have been closely collaborating on how to overcome PARP inhibitor resistance and develop better therapies for ovarian cancer. The ultimate goal is to bring to clinical trials present PARG inhibitors or newly synthesized PARG inhibitors at our institution.
I have an extensive experience in the development and testing of various novel therapies including immunotherapies for ovarian cancer. I have RO1 funding to understand mechanism of action of a novel CAR T-cell construct and have IND approval to run the first in human clinical trial of this CAR T targeting the antigen TAG72. I am well prepared to bring this project to success and will enthusiastically provide all the necessary clinical and conceptual support to successfully achieve proposal’s objectives.