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Emmanuel Katsanis, MD

Professor, Pediatrics
Professor, Pathology
Professor, Immunobiology
Professor, Medicine
Program Director, Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Professor, Cancer Biology

PO Box 245073
Building: Arizona Health Sciences Center (#201)
Room #: 5341A

Fax: (520) 626-6986

(520) 626-7053
katsanis@peds.arizona.edu

Selected Publications

Larmonier N, Merino D, Nicolas A, Cathelin D, Besson A, Bateman A, Solary E, Martin F, Katsanis E, Bonnotte B. Apoptotic, necrotic, or fused tumor cells: An equivalent source of antigen for dendritic cell loading. Apoptosis. 2006 (E-publication).
 
Larmonier N, Marron M, Zeng Y, Cantrell J, Romanoski A, Sepassi M, Thompson S, Chen X, Andreansky S, Katsanis E. Tumor-derived CD4(+)CD25 (+) regulatory T cell suppression of dendritic cell function involves TGF-beta and IL-10. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2006 (E-publication).
 
Chen X, Zeng Y, Li G, Larmonier N, Graner MW, Katsanis E. Peritransplantation vaccination with chaperone-rich cell lysate induces antileukemia immunity. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 12(3):275-83, 2006.
 
Ramanathapuram LV. Hahn T. Graner MW. Katsanis E. Akporiaye ET. Vesiculated alpha-tocopheryl succinate enhances the anti-tumor effect of dendritic cell vaccines. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. 55(2):166-77, 2006.
 
Zeng Y. Graner MW. Thompson S. Marron M. Katsanis E. Induction of BCR-ABL-specific immunity following vaccination with chaperone-rich cell lysates derived from BCR-ABL+ tumor cells. Blood. 105(5):2016-22, 2005.
 
Graner MW. Likhacheva A. Davis J. Raymond A. Brandenberger J. Romanoski A. Thompson S. Akporiaye E. Katsanis E. Cargo from tumor-expressed albumin inhibits T-cell activation and responses. Cancer Research. 64(21):8085-92, 2004.
 

Sponsored Research Through MSRP

Benjamin Wright, (MSRP 2006): "Modulation of Tumor Induced Regulatory T Cells by Killer Dendritic Cells"
 
Jason Wright, (MSRP 2008): "Modulation of tumor induced regulatory T cells by killer dendritic cells."
 
Elaine Hutchinson, (MSRP 2013): "Influence of Selected Vitamin E Compounds on Immune Cell Subsets in a Mammary Carcinoma Model."
 
Jaime Faulkner, (MSRP 2017): "Blood Cytokine Levels Pre and Post MHC-Mismatched Bone Marrow Transplantation in Mice Pre-Treated with Bendamustine"
 
Kacy Gilbert-Gard, (MSRP 2018): "Does a Bout of Exercise And/or Injection with a Beta Agonist Before Stem Cell Collection Favorably Alter the T Cell Population in a Donor's Blood, and Will That Result in a Better Outcome When Used in HSCT for Hematological Malignancies?"
 
Andres Diaz, (MSRP 2021): "A Continuous Cancer Vaccine Platform Employing a Cell Based Implantable Device."
 

NIH Undergraduate Diversity Program

Cecilia Machado, 2016, 2017, "Bendamustine as a conditioning agent.", 2018, Graft Versus Leukemia with Ben-tbi Conditioning."
 

Advanced Research Distinction Track (RDT)

Jason Wright, (RDT Class of 2012): "Modulation of Treg FoxP3 transcription factor and suppressive function by killer dendritic cells."
 
Jaime Faulkner, (RDT Class of 2020): "Novel Approaches to Enhance ADCC in Neuroblastoma"
 

NIH High School Student Research Program

Payal Patel (Steele Memorial Fellow), Dobson High (Phoenix, AZ), 1999
Andrea Kenny (Steele Memorial Fellow), Shadow Mountain High School, 2000
Luis Luy, Douglas High School, 2016, 2017
Sophia Garcia, Sunnyside High School, 2018
Daniella Diaz-Jusaino, Pueblo High School, 2020
Julian Grijalva, Sunnyside High School, 2020

Degrees

  • Medical School, National University of Athens, Athens, Greece, 1980 (M.D.)
  • Department of, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, 1982 (Post Doctoral Research Associate, Medicine)
  • University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 1986 (Residency, Pediatrics)
  • University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 1987 (Fellow, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology)
  • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,1990 (Fellow, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology & BMT)
  • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1991 (Post Doctoral Research Associate, Pediatrics)

Awards

  • First Place Award, University of Minnesota Pediatric Fellows' Research Symposium 1990
  • Irvine McQuarrie Research Scholar Award 1992-1994
  • Young Investigator Award, American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 1992
  • Clinical Oncology Career Development Award, American Cancer Society 1993-1996
  • Louise Thomas Endowed Chair In Pediatric Cancer Research 2005

Research Interests

Tumor-derived chaperone proteins (or heat shock proteins) are unique mediators of specific anti-tumor immunity when such proteins are purified from tumor tissue. We have developed a novel method that efficiently enriches for multiple chaperone complexes from tumor lysates using free solution isoelectric focusing (FS-IEF). Reproducibly and in numerous murine models, we have documented that vaccination with these Chaperone Rich Cell Lysates (CRCL) is more effective than immunization with purified individual chaperones such as HSP70 and GRP94/gp96, two heat shock proteins (HSPs) currently used in clinical immunotherapy trials. The antigenicity of CRCL can be augmented further by loading them onto dendritic cells (DCs) resulting in protection against murine tumors even in the setting of pre-existing disease. In addition to the antigen carrying capacities, CRCL have potent immunostimulatory effects on DCs. As adjuvants CRCL provide danger signals enhancing the immunogenicity leukemia cells undergoing apoptosis following drug treatment.

Research efforts are currently focused on studying the immunostimulatory activities of HSPs particularly in the form of CRCL. Our goal is to generate sufficient and convincing pre-clinical data to move CRCL vaccines into the clinical setting. We are continuing our studies in various murine models in order to understand further the mechanisms of action of CRCL vaccines. In parallel we have initiated in vitro studies examining the effects of human derived CRCL on human cells so we can establish efficacy and safety. Ongoing studies are 1) Characterizing the peptide antigen repertoire of CRCL vaccine derived from specific tumors. 2) Studying the in vivo synergistic effects of CRCL vaccine/adjuvant with drugs that induce apoptosis. 3) Biochemically characterizing human tumor derived CRCL, evaluating its effects on human DCs and examining the potential of human tumor derived CRCL-pulsed DCs to generate tumor specific CTLs.