The Human Retrovirus Section designed, developed and tested vaccines and immunotherapies for AIDS and cancer. We developed and tested new technologies including nucleic acid delivery methods in vivo, prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines and immunotherapies. We studied the role and application of cytokines in vaccines and cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Pavletic is an expert in chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD); his clinical studies focused on improving treatment for patients with cGVHD. Dr. Pavletic led national and international efforts to develop consensus guidelines for cGVHD clinical trials. He directed the NIH cGVHD Study Group and the NIH Myeloid Malignancies Clinical Program, which is investigating myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and secondary or therapy-related acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
Dr. Pegoraro heads the High-Throughout Imaging Facility (HiTIF), which provides CCR investigators with the expertise and the technology needed to set-up, optimize and implement high-content imaging (HCI) assays. HCI assays are used to analyze large numbers of experimental conditions, such as in functional genomics or chemical compounds screens. In addition, the HiTIF applies HCI in combination with single-cell image and data analysis to quantify exceedingly rare but biologically important events in heterogeneous populations of cells.
Dr. Perera received his Ph.D. from the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD in 1990 and joined the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, NIAID in 1992 as a senior staff fellow. In 1997, he moved to the Metabolism Branch of NCI (now the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch) as a staff scientist and currently leads a translational research program.
Dr. Martin Peron is a licensed psychologist who specializes in using acceptance and mindfulness-based interventions for coping with physical and psychological effects of illness, and in the neuropsychological assessment of individuals with medical conditions. She serves on the board of several psychology organizations and special interest groups. As clinical and training director of the Pediatric Psychology and Neurobehavioral Research Program at POB, Dr.
Dr. Pinto is a board certified urologic surgeon specializing in oncology and is the Director of the Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program. He is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in the minimally invasive treatment of urologic cancers, specializing in laparoscopic and robotic surgery for prostate, kidney, bladder, and testicular cancer. His research goals focus on developing novel diagnostic and treatment modalities for localized and locally advanced prostate cancer.
Dr. Poirier pioneered antibody-based methodologies for determining chemical carcinogen-induced DNA damage in humans. Cell culture, animal models and human subjects were employed to elucidate factors associated with human cancer risk. Information on DNA adduct processing in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA was correlated with: tumorigenesis, clinical response, toxicity, and integrity of organelles.
Dr. Pommier is a leader on DNA topoisomerase biology and biochemistry, and their cancer relevance. He revealed the interfacial inhibition paradigm based on molecular mechanisms of topoisomerase inhibitors, and has championed its broad relevance for molecular pharmacology and drug discovery. He discovered the indenoisoquinolines as novel Top1 inhibitors, which are in clinical development, and the mitochondrial topoisomerase gene, TOP1mt.
Dr. Price’s research focuses on the molecular biology of prostate cancer with emphasis on the goals of (1) understanding the biology of prostate cancer progression and the transition from androgen-dependent disease to castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), (2) exploring the impact of genetic polymorphisms in androgen regulatory pathways on clinical outcomes, and (3) developing targeted therapies against CRPC with emphasis on the design and development of small molecule inhibitors of angiogenesis, transporters and hypoxia factors. Dr.
Dr. Qian’s major research interests have focused on the impact of certain oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes on normal and neoplastic cell growth and signaling.
Dr. Raffeld's research interests are concerned with the molecular pathogenesis of lymphomas and the use of molecular and immunohistochemical markers in lymphoma diagnosis.
Dr. Rajan's clinical research studies focus on developing new therapies for patients with lung cancer and thymic malignancies.
The group studies Arf family guanine nucleotide binding proteins and their regulators Arf GTPase-activating proteins (Arf GAPs) and Arf guanine nucleotide exchange factors (Arf GEFs), with a focus on their function in the regulation of integrin adhesion complexes.
The primary focus of my research has been to use various biochemistry, molecular biology and computer modeling tools to study the structures and functions of HIV proteins (reverse transcriptase, integrase, capsid, nucleocapsid, rev), HIV-related host proteins (APOBEC3G, DC-SIGN, L-SIGN) and viral RNA motifs (HIV-1 polypurine tracts, HIV-1 and HIV-2 rev-response elements, HIV-1 5’ UTR).
Dr. Redon obtained his PhD from the Biochemistry and Cellular Biology Department at the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne, France. His thesis was a study of grape histones. In 1999, Dr. Redon joined Dr. Bonner’s laboratory in the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, CCR, NCI as a Visiting Fellow where he contributed to studies related to DNA damage repair, genomic instability, radiation biology, cancer and drug development among others. As a fellow, Dr. Redon was one of the most dependable, resourceful and diligent researchers in the Bonner laboratory.
Dr. Reilly received her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard University and trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Cancer Research of MIT, where she held fellowships from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the AACR-Sidney Kimmel Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. She came to the CCR in 2002 and established the Genetic Modifiers of Tumorigenesis Group. In 2016, she was appointed director of the Rare Tumors Initiative.
Dr. Rein is a recognized expert in virus assembly, particularly with respect to human and murine retroviruses. His other research interests included structure-function relationships in viral RNA and cellular defense mechanisms against retroviruses. When he was Head of the Retrovirus Assembly Section, he studied molecular mechanisms of retroviral replication and pathogenesis, with the hope that this understanding would lead to new methods of combatting retrovirus-induced disease, including AIDS.
William Reinhold runs the CellMiner website , generates data for inclusion in it, organizes that data in an intuitive fashion, develops the software to facilitate the use of that data, and accesses that data scientifically. CellMiner includes data for the NCI-60 cancerous cell lines, and is a premier systems pharmacology resource, including data from 18 platforms.
Dr. Ridnour received her Ph.D. under the auspices of the late Dr. Larry Oberley where her work demonstrated that the tumor suppressive effects of MnSOD are mediated, at least in part, by an imbalance in peroxide generating versus peroxide metabolizing enzymes. She completed her postdoctoral training at Washington University in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Spitz, where she identified thiol-dependent mechanisms associated with NO-induced resistance to peroxide stress. Dr. Ridnour joined the research group of Dr. David Wink (NCI) in 2003.
My group is focused primarily on two projects: studies of the association of characteristics of tumor reactive T cells administered to patients and clinical response and the generation of high affinity TCRs for the treatment of patients with cancer. Recent studies have focused on the identification of mutated antigens recognized by T cells derived from patients with a variety of cancers including melanoma, colon, breast, ovarian and lung cancer by carrying out high-throughput sequencing of tumor DNA and RNA.
