Noriyuki Kasahara PhD, MD

Early in Dr. Kasahara's career, he was involved in research showing that thymidylate synthase (TS) and thymidine kinase (TK) are highly upregulated to support rapid DNA replication and cell proliferation during carcinogenesis, and can serve both as diagnostic biomarkers as well as chemotherapeutic targets. Dr. Kasahara's current research focuses on the application of genetic engineering and gene therapy technologies to the fields of cancer, transplantation, and regenerative medicine.
Dr. Kashara and his lab have pursued translationally-relevant strategies, including (1) development of novel hybrid virus vectors, cancer-targeted vectors, and tumor-selectively replicating virus vectors, (2) development of genetically-engineered cancer cell vaccines and dendritic cell vaccines, as well as adoptive immunotherapy with cancer-targeted alloreactive T cells, and (3) development of methods for genetic modification of histocompatibility and in vivo chemoselection of hematopoietic stem cells.