EDITORIAL-DETAILS (JNND)
Carol A Kruse
Professor
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
United States
Tel: (310) 553-5480
Biography
Dr. Kruse received her PhD at UCLA. She has held faculty appointments at Caltech, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, and in San Diego, at the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. She moved to the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011 where she is a Professor in Neurosurgery. The goals of her laboratory are directed toward clinical neuroimmunology and brain tumors. Preclinically, they study immunoresistance mechanisms in tumor cells and use glioma and brain metastatic cell culture as a model system, in addition to syngeneic mouse and rat or human xenograft brain tumor models. Basic research projects involve: 1) the development of algorithms that predictively-select allodonors to obtain robust alloreactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) based upon molecular HLA mismatch of responder:stimulator pairs, 2) enhancing generation of immunotherapeutic CTL using dendritic cells (DC) differentially activated using TLR agonists and nanoparticles, 3) study of the T cell and microglial infiltrates in lesioned brain tissues derived from patients with Rasmussen’s encephalitis or cortical dysplasia. Translational research studies are focused on combining innovative immune cellular and gene therapy approaches. A dose escalation Phase I clinical trial involving intratumoral adoptive transfer of alloreactive CTL is underway. As well, they are engineering alloreactive CTL as replication competent retroviral vector producing cells. The multi-modal therapies are tested not only for primary malignant brain tumors, but for tumors metastatic to brain.
Research Interest
Neuroimmunology, Cellular Therapy, Dendritic Cells, Immunotherapy, Gene Therapy, Brain Tumors, Tumors Metastatic To Brain, Breast Metastases In Brain, Rasmussen’s Encephalitis