Cancer

Welcome to Seraph Research Institute

Every cancer starts with a single cell that is able to evade the immune system’s surveillance. In this cloaked state, the immune system is unable to launch an attack on the disease. This results in the continuous and excessive growth of the cancer cells, which results in the generation and progression of malignant tumors.

Hypothetically, a cure can be accomplished if the patient’s immune system is taught to effectively identify and kill the elusive cancer cells that evade or repel the immune cells. As a general concept “immunotherapy” governs different strategies and treatment modalities to accomplish this feat.

In our cancer research, we focus on cancer biology, basic immunology, cancer immunology, cancer’s immune-evasion mechanisms, and host immune defense systems to try to leverage the latest developments and the information collected in fundamental science research to create innovative modalities for the treatment of cancer. This includes developing targeted and cell-mediated immunotherapy, including vaccines, oncolytic viruses, and modalities – especially using cancer-targeted immune system cells and other personalized tumor-targeted approaches for the treatment of patients with cancer at the risk of disease recurrence, or at a stage known to be resistant to conventional treatments.

Our cancer-related research programs include gene-modified cell therapies in hematological and solid tumor cancers, personalized cancer vaccines, host cellular, and molecular defense systems, cancer-specific immunogenicity, and the mechanisms of activation, inhibition, and cross-communication of innate and adaptive immune systems in cancer.

CNS MALIGNANCIES

Most common primary central nervous system (CNS) malignancies are gliomas. A primary CNS tumor is often graded as either low grade or high grade. A low-grade tumor is a slow-growing tumor, which can later become a high-grade tumor. A high-grade tumor is usually a fast-growing tumor. CNS tumors are often particularly challenging to treat, because their structure and/or location makes them impossible to surgically remove.

Seraph Research Institute focuses on new strategies designed to reprogram the immune system to overcome the cancer’s immune evasive or immune-regulatory mechanisms in the nervous system. We also study the potential immunotherapy (graft-versus-tumor effect) properties of allogeneic bone marrow transplant and gene-modified autologous bone marrow transplant in carefully designed pre-clinical experiments to explore the clinical potential of bone marrow transplants in CNS malignancies.

SOLID TUMOR CANCERS

Our research in solid tumor cancers is driven by several scientific goals, including:

define and understand the molecular mechanisms behind the immune-evasion properties of the solid tumor micro environment
understand the mechanisms of inhibition of the host cellular immune response in cancer
elucidate the cellular and molecular alterations that initiate tumor generation and support cancer cell proliferation and persistence
improve existing therapeutic regimens and ongoing translational and clinical research from our basic science discoveries
accelerate the translational science and help individuals have access to new and innovative clinical modalities
solid tumor cancer research mainly focuses on the cancer-specific immunogenic effects of adoptive cell therapies and cell-based cancer vaccines.

HEMATOLOGICAL MALIGNANCIES

Hematologic cancers are the cancers that occur in the immune system cells or in blood-forming organs, like bone marrow and lymph nodes. Seraph Research Institute focuses on harnessing the knowledge, experience and efficacy of the existing standard treatment models – such as stem cell transplantation combined with novel methods like gene therapies – to transform the existing standard of care to a more evolved, less toxic version of itself.

Our team collaborates in research with leading international experts in the field to bring pioneering discoveries into hematological malignancies and new and improved stem cell transplant methods to early-phase clinical stage to potentially change the standard of care of cancer for the coming generations.