My career focus is to join laboratory and clinical research for the development and implementation of new therapies in cancer, to strengthen the vital link between the bench and the bedside. Many technologies from the basic sciences have evolved which provide opportunities from advances in clinical medicine. My own background is a synthesis of basic and clinical science which I plan to bring equally to bear in pursuit of this goal. This proposal describes the three major research efforts in my group over the application period: (i) a clinical biotherapy trial using a humanized antibody to IL2 receptor (anti-Tac-H) which evolved from an earlier laboratory project of the applicant, (ii) a second biotherapy- related project which will develop chimeric IgTCR-gene therapy agents to combat CEA-expressing solid tumors, and (iii) a basic science-oriented project using phage display technology to define th presumed neoantigens that elicit the plasma cell responses in medullary carcinoma of the breast. While the clinical trial with anti-Tac-H represents an opportunity that grew out of my postdoctoral work at the NCI, the other two studies represent new directions that I initiated since assuming my present independent position. Each of these projects represent different phases of the translation of basic science concepts into direct application to treatment or understanding of cancer, from a full-fledged clinical trial down to an idea still without data, even as the current clinical trial once began.
