University of California, San Diego
$500,000 Tower Senior Investigator Grant
Research Title:
Using Oxaliplatin to improve the response to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade
Immune checkpoint inhibitors had revolutionized cancer treatment. The most versatile such drugs are antibodies that target a receptor molecule called PD-1 or its ligand PD-L1. Although effective in many cancer types, response rates to these drugs rarely exceed 20-30%, necessitating the search for agents that synergize with PD-1/PD-L1 blockers. Using mouse models, we found that the conventional chemotherapeutic drug oxaliplatin has the unique ability to greatly enhance the response to PD-1/PD-L1 blocking antibodies. We will investigate how oxaliplatin increases the effectiveness of PD-1/PD-L1 blockers and will validate these findings in human lung cancer through a Phase I/II clinical study.
Dr. Karin received his BSc in Biology from Tel Aviv University in 1975 and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California Los Angeles in 1979. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty since 1986.
Dr. Karin has received numerous awards for his outstanding research. He was a cofounder of Signal Pharmaceutical, which has become a part of Celgene, Inc. Dr. Karin’s current activity primarily focuses on understanding the relationship between inflammation, cancer, and metabolic disease as well as the signaling mechanisms used by receptors involved in inflammation and innate immunity.
In addition to discovering some of the most important stress- and inflammation-responsive signal transduction pathways and establishing molecular links between obesity, inflammation and cancer, Dr. Karin’s work has revealed new targets for cancer prevention and therapy as well as for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other metabolic diseases.