Pitt
UPMC
UPCI
CMU
The Storkus laboratory designs immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer that based upon in vitro studies and translational mouse models, lead to the development of phase I/II clinical trials for patients with melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. These modalities include DC-based vaccines, cytokine gene modified DCs injected into tumor lesions, and combinational approaches integrating agents that modulate tumor cell immune recognition, or alter the balance of Th1 versus regulatory immunity in the tumor microenvironment. We also have discovered that immune targeting of the tumor-associated vasculature occurs naturally as a consequence of effective immunotherapy, and that vaccines based on tumor associated blood vessel antigens can promote tumor regression, even in cases where the cancer cells cannot directly be recognized by the protective CD8+ immune system.
Walter Storkus, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Dermatology
University of Pittsburgh
BST2 W1041.2
200 Lothrop Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
office: 412-648-9981
fax: 412-383-5857
email: storkuswj@upmc.edu
Publications:
Zhao X, Bose A, Komita H, Taylor JL, Chi N, Lowe DB, Okada H, Cao Y, Mukhopadhyay D, Cohen PA, Storkus WJ (2012). Vaccines targeting tumor blood vessel antigens promote CD8+ T cell-dependent tumor eradication or dormancy in HLA-A2 transgenic mice. J Immunol. 188: 1782-1788.
Bose A, Taylor JL, Alber S, Watkins SC, Garcia JA, Rini BI, Ko JS, Cohen PA, Finke JH, Storkus WJ (2011). Sunitinib enhances the anti-tumor efficacy of therapeutic vaccines. Int J Cancer 129: 2158-2170.
Zhao X, Bose A, Komita H, Taylor JL, Kawabe M, Chi N, Spokas L, Lowe DB, Goldbach C, Alber S, Watkins SC, Butterfield LH, Kalinski P, Kirkwood JM, Storkus WJ (2011). Intratumoral IL-12 gene therapy results in the cross-priming of Tc1 cells reactive against tumor-associated stromal antigens. Mol Ther. 19: 805-814.
Qu Y, Taylor JL, Storkus WJ (2011). Therapeutic effectiveness of intratumorally delivered dendritic cells engineered to express the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin (IL)-32. Cancer Gene Ther. 18: 663-673.