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Prof John Anderson
Professor of Experimental Paediatric Oncology
Developmental Biology & Cancer Dept
UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
- Joined UCL
- 1st Sep 1998
Research summary
My research programme has been
supported by grants from Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research,
SPARKS, Children with Leukaemia, Wellcome Trust and the Great Ormond Street
Hospital Charity. I am a specialist in tumour immunology and immunotherapy as
applied to childhood cancers and run a translational research programme. In
translational research, clinical observation is used to identify research
priorities and opportunities, and the availability of patient populations
allows the rapid introduction of innovative treatments in clinical trials.
Observations from experimental medicine are also used to generate novel
hypotheses to test in the laboratory.
In recent year my group has
focussed on the development of clinical trials of gene and cell therapy
for high risk childhood cancers. These studies are highly complex in design and
execution due to the regulatory requirements for manufacture in accordance with
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). There have been four main elements.
Firstly, we have opened a trial of dendritic cell
vaccination for children with high risk brain tumour (high grade glioma) funded
largely by a £450,000 grant from Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
Secondly, we have been funded by Cancer Research UK New
Agent Committee for both preclinical and clinical costs of a Gene and Cell
therapy trial for neuroblastoma involving a novel chimeric antigen receptors.
The trial was adopted onto the CRUK trials portfolio in 2012.
Thirdly, we have recently strengthened the translational cancer
research activity in ICH through new research grant income (£1,271,288 from
LLR, CRUK, Wellcome, Children with Cancer UK and others). In 2012, we
formalised this effort through the formation of the Translational Cancer
Research Collaboration (TCRC) of senior academics and clinicians at ICH/GOSH. Initial
funding for this translational research grouping has been secured from the
Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (£672,533).
Education
- University of London
- PhD, | 1998
- University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- MBBS, Clinical Medicine | 1991
- University of Oxford
- BA, Biochemistry | 1986
Biography
I was appointed as a Clinical Lecturer
in paediatric oncology at UCL Institute of Child Health in 1998 after
completing my PhD, which I had undertaken as a clinical research fellow at the
Institute of Cancer Research (1995-1998). My initial 4 year appointment
(1998-2002) at ICH was funded by a donation to ICH from the Great Ormond Street
Hospital Special Trustees. In 2001 I was awarded a Cancer Research UK (then the
Cancer Research Campaign) Clinician Scientist Fellowship (2002-2007). Since
2007, I held a HEFCE Senior Clinical Fellowship.
During my first 7 years at ICH I
completed my clinical training in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology, whilst
establishing my own laboratory-based research group. In 2005 I gained
Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training in Paediatrics and Paediatric
Oncology and was appointed as Honorary Consultant Oncologist at Great Ormond
Street Hospital.
My research underwent a major shift in
direction from basic cancer biology to tumour immunology and immunotherapy
after joining UCL in 1998. The scientific observations that led to this new
focus arose whilst investigating the genetics of rhabdomyosarcoma further.
Through expression microarray studies to identify PAX3-FKHR regulated target
genes, we discovered that PAX3-FKHR expressing tumours display a specific
immunoinhibitory phenotype that is attributable to the fusion protein itself
and its physical association with STAT3, a protein that was newly emerging as a
central player in the control of the tumour immune environment. We showed that
the interaction ofPAX3-FKHR with STAT3 resulted in a profoundly
immunoinhibitory phenotype. This opened up a new conceptual appreciation to me
that tumours with little evidence of immunogenicity could have immune evasion
wired into their essential oncogenic programming. Hence apparent lack of
reactive immunogenicity in histological terms does not preclude immunotherapy
to target tumour antigens, if the immune evasion mechanisms can be concurrently
targeted. Our work mapping the role of PAX3-FKHR was published in J Exp Med.