Maria Castro, PhD
Co-Director, Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute
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Institute Affiliation
| Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute |
Academic Appointments
| Professor, Medicine |
| Professor, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology |
Awards and Activities
| "Woman of Action Award"-Israel Cancer Research Fund | 2008 |
| The Medallions Group Endowed Chair in Gene Therapeutics Research | 2006 |
| Member, NST Study Section, National Inst of Neurological Disorders and Stroke | 2006 |
| Member Editorial Board: Gene Therapy | Current |
| American Society for Gene Therapy, Member | 2001 |
| American Association for Cancer Research, Member | 2004 |
Research Focus
To elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying brain tumor regression in pre-clinical models of glioblastoma (GBM); the role of bone marrow derived tumor infiltrating dendritic cells (TIDC) in mediating tumor regression and initiating innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune response. To study the role of Toll receptors (TLR) in mediating anti-cancer immune responses, having uncovered that endogenous TLR tumor ligands bind to TIDC triggering systemic anti-GBM immunity. The laboratory is imaging in vivo and non-invasively the trafficking of activated immune cells into the brain tumor.
Research Contributions
Novel immunotherapies for cancer, the implementation of therapeutic strategies in several preclinical cancer models as a preamble to clinical implementation, spearheaded the development of novel in vivo gene transfer vectors for clinical trails.
Current investigations include:
Immuno-therapeutics for brain cancer; manipulating the brain immune system using gene therapy strategies; in vivo migration of immune cells into the central nervous system, in vivo trafficking of immune cells into the tumor microenvironment.
Selected Publications
- King GD, Muhammad AK, Xiong W, Kroeger KM, Puntel M, Larocque D, Palmer D, Ng P, Lowenstein PR, Castro MG: High-capacity adenovirus vector-mediated anti-glioma gene therapy in the presence of systemic antiadenovirus immunity. J. Virol., 82(9): 4680-4, 2008
- Curtin JF, Candolfi M, Fakhouri TM, Liu C, Alden A, Edwards M, Lowenstein PR, Castro MG: Treg depletion inhibits efficacy of cancer immunotherapy: implications for clinical trials. PLoS ONE, 3(4): e1983, 2008
- Curtin JF, King GD, Barcia C, Liu C, Hubert FX, Guillonneau C, Josien R, Anegon I, Lowenstein PR, Castro MG: Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand recruits plasmacytoid dendritic cells to the brain. J. Immunol., 176(6): 3566-77, 2006
- Ali S, King GD, Curtin JF, Candolfi M, Xiong W, Liu C, Puntel M, Cheng Q, Prieto J, Ribas A, Kupiec-Weglinski J, van Rooijen N, Lassmann H, Lowenstein PR, Castro MG: Combined immunostimulation and conditional cytotoxic gene therapy provide long-term survival in a large glioma model. Cancer Res., 65(16): 7194-204, 2005
- Umaña P, Gerdes CA, Stone D, Davis JR, Ward D, Castro MG, Lowenstein PR: Efficient FLPe recombinase enables scalable production of helper-dependent adenoviral vectors with negligible helper-virus contamination. Nat. Biotechnol., 19(6): 582-5, 2001
