Thomas J. Kipps M.D., Ph.D. University of California, San Diego Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center

Gene and Vaccine Therapy

CLL Vaccines

Update:

We generated several different types of vaccines intended to induce immune responses against ROR1, a protein that we found was made by leukemia cells of patients with CLL but not on normal adult cells. We examined the structure of these vaccines and tested for their capacity to make the desired protein. We used these vaccines to immunize experimental animals and compared them in their ability to elicit antibody responses against ROR1.

We are comparing vaccines that involve simple pieces of DNA, or more elaborate systems, that use an inactive cold virus to insert the vaccine into cells. We are comparing the relative efficiency of each to determine which vaccine best can be used in planned clinical trials involving patients with CLL.