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Bakhos Tannous, Ph.D.
Molecular Neurogenetics Unit, Neuroscience Program, Harvard Medical School
Center for Molecular Imaging Research, Massachusetts General Hospital
Delivery of therapeutic genes to tumors through viral vectors offers an exciting new approach to augmentation of cancer therapies. A number of therapeutic genes have shown potential in experimental models, including genes encoding immune-enhancing functions, pro-drug activation genes, and apoptotic genes. My interest focus on developing novel cancer killing methods and coupling them with imaging techniques (such as bioluminescence and MRI) to allow evaluation and optimization of gene delivery to tumors in vivo, which is currently the rate-limiting step to effective gene therapy.
Another aspect of my research involves characterization of sensitive bioluminescent reporters for in vitro and in vivo imaging. Recently, I have characterized a luciferase from the marine copepod Gaussia princeps (Fig 1). The cDNA of this luciferase has been cloned by Dr. Bruce Bryan (Prolume-Nanolight). Gaussia luciferase is the smallest luciferase known and offers the advantage of being up to one thousand fold more sensitive than other luciferases currently in use when expressed in mammalian cells, in mammalian cells, in culture and in vivo.
Figure 1. Micrograph of the marine copepod Gaussia princeps (around 6 mm long from head to telson). Courtesy of Dr. Steve Haddock, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Monterey, CA.
Mailing Address:
149 13th St. Room 6101
Charlestown, MA 02129
phone: 617-726-5731