Alan Friedman, M.D.

Our body’s immune system recognizes and destroys foreign invaders such as infections or cancer. Malignant tumors try to outsmart and hide from the immune system. Therapies that activate T cells, a key part of the immune system, are effective against multiple cancers. Myeloid cells are a second important part of the immune system. Myeloid cells can be activated by removing a protein called p50. Our laboratory finds that infusion of myeloid cells lacking p50 into mice leads to shrinkage of several types of cancer, including prostate and pancreatic cancers. We now seek to further improve the effectiveness of myeloid cells lacking p50, to develop human myeloid cells lacking p50 suitable for use in patients, and to evaluate the ability human myeloid cells lacking p50 to shrink human prostate and pancreatic cancers growing in mice. We anticipate that completion of these studies will allow us to begin clinical trials testing the benefit of human myeloid cells lacking p50 as a novel treatment for multiple cancers.