With a $500,000 Research Grant from Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), Sidi Chen, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Genetics and Systems Biology Institute at Yale School of Medicine and member of Yale Cancer Center, will advance a versatile and highly scalable strategy he”™s been developing and calling MAEGI ”” Multiplexed Activation of Endogenous Genes as an Immunotherapy.
“Cell and gene therapies that leverage the natural power of the immune system are extending lives and improving quality of lives,” said Chen. “A number of approaches are being tested and employed today. All of them offer promise in the fight against solid tumors, but none are perfect.”
“The ACGT Scientific Advisory Council finds Dr. Chen”™s MAEGI technology to be unique and exciting because it simultaneously targets multiple differences and activates multiple immune system responses,” said Kevin Honeycutt, CEO and president of ACGT. “It has proven to be very effective in animal models. We believe our support will enable its advancement into the clinic where it would have major, life-saving impact on pancreatic and other difficult-to-treat cancers, such as melanoma, glioblastoma and triple negative breast cancer.”
For 20 years ACGT has funded research that is bringing innovative treatment options to people living with deadly cancers ”” treatments that save lives and offer new hope to all cancer patients.
Yale Cancer Center is one of only 51 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the nation and the only such center in Connecticut.
