The main objective of the Tumor Immunology Program is to investigate the immunologic interactions between the host and tumor and to translate these findings into novel clinical trials in patients with cancer. The Program's membership includes basic and clinical investigators from the Departments pf Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Radiology, Pathology, and Microbiology. In addition, the Program has established formal scientific and clinical interactions with the Breast Oncology, Leukemia/Lymphoma, Gastrointestinal Oncology, Childhood Cancers, Head and Neck, and Urological/Prostate Programs to investigate the elicitation of immune responses to these tumors and the use of immune- based therapies in these settings. The Tumor Immunology Program relies heavily on the functions of several Cores, including Biostatistics, Flow Cytometry, Molecular Biology and Protein Chemistry, Experimental Irradiation, Vector, Animal, and the Clinical Trials Office. The Program has also played a key organizational role in the new Immunological Monitoring Core and has initiated studies involving the new Microarray Core. The research component of the Program focuses on efforts to improve tumor immunotherapy by developing novel vaccine adoptive T cell, and gene therapy tumor immunotherapy by developing novel vaccine adoptive T cell, and gene therapy approaches through the use of well-defined in vivo animal models, in vitro tissue culture systems, and state-of-the-art immunologic assays. In addition, the Program's investigators are actively involved in studies of the induction and breaking of immune tolerance as well as actively involved in studies of the induction and breaking of immune tolerance as well as immune reconstitution following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as critical areas in tumor immunology. By doing so, the basic research component of the Program focuses on efforts to improve cancer immunotherapy. The clinical research component actively enrolls advanced to improve cancer immunotherapy. The clinical research component actively enrolls advanced cancer patients in novel clinical trials as a direct outcome of Program. Current and planned future clinical trials include: the use of tumor-pulsed dendritic cells, recombinant vaccinia viruses, and gene-modified tumor cells in vaccine strategies; the adoptive transfer of immune effector T cells and gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells; and the systemic delivery of recombinant cytokines. In the area of education, the Program has spearheaded the formal establishment of a new Ph.D. degree granting Graduate Program in Immunology administered through the University of Michigan's Rackham Graduate School and the Medical School. This new graduate program is directed by the Tumor Immunology Program's current director (J. Mule) with additional oversight by an operating committee in which the majority of seats are currently held by members of the Tumor Immunology Program.
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