Major focus of our laboratory is use of genetically-modified stem cells in experimental gene therapies

Gene therapy is a novel therapeutic branch of modern medicine, which allows transfer of genetic information into patient tissues and organs, resulting in elimination of diseased genes or normal functions rescued. Furthermore this approach permits the addition of new functions to cells. Gene therapy applies similar principles as traditional pharmacologic therapy; like regional specificity for the targeted tissue, specificity of the introduced gene functionin relation to disease, stability and controllability of expression of the introduced gene.

To integrate all these aspects into asuccessful therapy is an exceedingly complex process that requires expertise from many disciplines. Therapeutic genes can be delivered using living cells, which has certain advantages like cells can be manipulated precisely in vitro and expanded and characterized before reintroduction into the patient.Strategies that combine gene targeting with stem cell-based therapy are thus potential novel therapeutic options and offers great promise in overcoming many of the existing problems of cell-based gene therapy that have been encountered in clinical trials. Further research is essential to determine the full potential of stem cells in this exciting new field.
CAREER INTERESTS :
Stem Cell homing, therapeutic applications of gene-modified stem cells.

AWARDS :
RAMALINGASWAMI FELLOW (Department of Biotechnology, Government of India) - 2010.





BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Education: Post-doctoral Fellow- 2002-2010;Gene Therapy Center, University of  Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
PhD [Molecular Biology]-1999;Genetic Engineering Division, Delhi University, Delhi-11007, India.
M.Sc Biotechnology - 1993;Goa University, Goa, India.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Kumar S, Wan C, Ramaswamy G, Clemens TL, Ponnazhagan S. Mesenchymal stem cells expressing osteogenic and angiogenic factors synergistically enhance bone formation in mouse segmental bone defect. Molecular Therapy.2010; 18: 1026-34.

Kumar S, Nagy TR, Ponnazhagan S. Therapeutic potential of genetically modified adult stem cells for osteopenia. Gene Therapy.2010; 1: 105-16.

Chanda D, Kumar S, Ponnazhagan S Therapeutic potential of adult bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in diseases of the skeleton.J Cell Biochem. 2010 May 19.

Chanda D,Kumar S, Hensel JA, Sawant A, Ramaswamy G, Siegal GP, Beatty MS, Ponnazhagan S.. Therapeutic potential of adult mesenchymal stem cells in osteolytic bone metastasis.Clinical Cancer Research, 2009; 15: 175-85.

Ren C, Kumar S, Chanda D, Chen J, Mountz JD, Ponnazhagan S. Therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cells producing IFN-α in a mouse melanoma lung metastasis model.Stem Cells, 2008; 9: 2332-38.

Ren C, Kumar S, Chanda D, Kallman L, Chen J, Mountz JD, Ponnazhagan S. Cancer gene therapy using mesenchymal stem cells expressing interferon-β in a mouse prostate cancer lung metastasis model. Gene Therapy, 2008; 21:1446-53.

Chanda D, Kumar S, Ren C, Kallman L, Chen J, Mountz JD, Ponnazhagan S.Systemic osteoprotegerin gene therapy restores tumor-induced bone loss in a therapeutic model of breast cancer bone metastasis.Molecular Therapy, 2008; 16: 871-78.

Kumar S, Chanda D, Ponnazhagan S Therapeutic potential of genetically modified mesenchymal stem cells. Gene Ther. 2008 May;15(10):711-5.

Kumar S, Ponnazhagan S. Bone homing of mesenchymal stem cells by ectopic{alpha}4 integrin expression. FASEB J, 2007; 14:3917-27

Kumar S, Mahendra G, Ponnazhagan S. Osteoprogenitor-specific promoter activity in murine mesenchymal stem cells by recombinant adeno-associated virus transduction. Biophysica and BiochemicaActa, Gene Expressions, 2005;1731: 95-103.

 

 

Hit Counter: