Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
The median overall survival for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma is 17-20 months, with an average time to recurrence of 6 months. Reasons for treatment resistance include the existence of glioblastoma stem cells as well as the paucity of cytotoxic T-cells in the tumor microenvironment. Prior work from the Chheda Lab has demonstrated that oncolytic Zika virus treatment preferentially targets glioblastoma stem cells and also trigger a CD8+ T-cell mediated anti-tumor response. My research project will further characterize the mechanisms of CD8+ T-cell anti-tumor activity as well as begin to investigate the role of CD4+ T-cells in this treatment approach.