Ingegerd Hellstrom, MD, PhD
University of Washington
Silencing TGFbeta to increase the immunogenicity of ovarian carcinoma cells
This study aims to improve a woman’s prognosis by adding a therapeutic vaccination to encourage the body to mount an anti-tumor response using the secreted growth regulatory protein TGFβ (transforming growth factor). Dr. Hellstrom has shown that a mouse tumor engineered to inhibit TGFβ becomes effective as a vaccine and here will study similarly engineered human ovarian cancer towards developing a therapeutically effective vaccination.