Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2011

Mentor:                       Dr. Larry D. Anderson, Jr, MD, PhD
Department:              Internal Medicine, Hematology/Oncology
Room number:         ND3.504  (office NC8.106)
Mail Code:                 8565
Phone number:        214-648-5906
E-mail:                       Larry.Anderson@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title:               Identification of Targets for T Cell Therapy of Multiple Myeloma

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 072008-062

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):  2008-0244 and 2009-0355

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)  Combination of patient-based and animal-based research (pre-clinical)

Brief Description of Project:
Danial will work with myeloma patient T cells to evaluate for responses to potential myeloma antigens that may be used in future clinical trials of immunotherapy of myeloma.  He will isolate dendritic cells and T cells from frozen blood samples of myeloma patients in order to perform in vitro peptide stimulations, pentamer staining assays, flow cytometry, and interferon gamma Elispot assays as a readout of T cell responses.   He will also study T cell responses in mice and help us evaluate a novel method of vaccination using antigen loaded T cells as therapy against a murine model of multiple myeloma.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:
I am a relatively new faculty member here.  However, I have worked with a SURF student (Krishna Luitel) in the summer of 2010.  His work will be included in a publication that is in preparation.