Children’s Healthcare Of Atlanta

Basic Research

• Identifying the major barriers to the acquisition of transplant tolerance in a highly immunologically active model of a non-malignant hematologic disease, such as sickle cell
• Identifying how natural killer cells impact the acquisition of transplantation tolerance
• Identifying the major barriers to the acquisition of transplantation tolerance in the non-human primate model
• Identifying the barriers to tolerance that result in GvHD during BMT in a rhesus macaque model
• Cell and biological therapy for cancer and immune ailments
• Exploring the utility of stem cells for regenerative medicine, immune modulation and for delivery of therapeutic proteins for treatment of acquired and hereditary diseases

The Aflac Cancer Center BMT Program is a national leader in primate transplantation research—we are home to the only primate GvHD model in the country.

Basic Researchers

• Jacques Galipeau, Ph.D.
• Leslie S. Kean, M.D., Ph.D.

Recent Publications

• August KJ, Chiang KY, Bostick RM, Flanders WE, Waller EK, Langston A, Worthington-White D,  Rowland P, Moore KF, Khoury and Horan JT. Biomarkers of immune activation to screen for severe, acute GVHD. Bone Marrow Transplant 2010 July 12:doi:10.1038/bmt.2010.165.
• Bouchentouf M, Paradis P, Forner KA, Cuerquis J, Boivin MN, Zheng J, Boulassel MR, Routy JP, Schiffrin EL, Galipeau J.  Monocyte derivatives promote angiogenesis and myocyte survival in a model of myocardial infarction.  Cell Transplant. 2010;19(4):369-86. 
• Bouchentouf M.; Forner KA; Cuerquis J; Michaud V; Zheng J; Paradis P; Boulassel MR; Routy J.P.; Schiffrin EL and Galipeau J.  Induction of cardiac angiogenesis requires  KLRG1 and A4B7 integrin expression by NK cells. J Immunol. 2010 Dec 1;185(11):7014-7025. 
• Darlington PJ, Boivin MN, Renoux C, François M, Galipeau J, Freedman MS, Atkins HL, Cohen JA, Solchaga L, Bar-Or A. Reciprocal Th1 and Th17 regulation by mesenchymal stem cells: Implication for multiple sclerosis.  Ann Neurol. 2010 Oct;68(4):540-5.
• Dreyer Z, Dinndorf PA, Camitta BM, Sather H, La MK, Devidas M, Hilden JM, Heerema NA, Sanders JE, McGlennen R, Willman CL, Carroll AJ, Behm FG, Smith FO, Woods WG, Godder K, and Reaman GH.  Analysis of the Role of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Infants with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in First Remission and MLL Gene Rearrangements: A report from the Children's Oncology Group.  J Clin Oncol, 2010.  [Epub ahead of print.] doi: 10.1200/JCO.
• Larsen, CP, Page A, Hamby K, Strobert E, Penedo C, Ward T, Wiseman R, O’Connor, D, and Kean, LS.  Mixed-Chimerism and Tolerance Induction:  An MHC-defined primate model reveals significant rejection risks despite full MHC matching.  American Journal of Transplantation, 2010; 10:2396-2409.
• Miller WP, Srinivasan S, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Hamby K, Sen S, Deane T, Stempora L, Beus J, Wheeler C, Anderson DC, Sharma P, Garcia A, Strobert E, Elder E, Crocker I, Penedo CMT, Ward T, Song M, Larsen CP, Blazar BR, and Kean LS.  GvHD after Haploidentical Transplant: A novel, MHC-defined rhesus macaque model identifies CD28-negative CD8+ T cells as a reservoir of breakthrough T cell proliferation during costimulation blockade and sirolimus-based immunosuppression.  Blood  2010;116:5403-5418.
• Monica Taljaard, Michael R. Ward,  Michael J. B. Kutryk, David W. Courtman,  Nancy J. Camack,  Shaun G. Goodman, Thomas G. Parker, Alexander J. Dick, Jacques Galipeau, and Duncan J. Stewart.  Rationale and design of Enhanced Angiogenic Cell Therapy in Acute Myocardial Infarction (ENACT-AMI): The first randomized placebo-controlled trial of enhanced progenitor cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction.  Am Heart J. 2010 Mar;159:354-360.
• Morris SH, Haight AE, P Kamat P, Fortenberry JD.  Successful use of extracorporeal life support in a hematopoietic stem cell transplant patient with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage.  Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.  2010;11:e4-7.  PMID: 20051788 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
• Moutih Rafei  and Jacques Galipeau.  A CCL2-based fusokine as a novel biopharmaceutical for the treatment of CCR-2 driven autoimmune diseases.  Crit Rev Immunol. 2010;30(5):449-461.
• Patrick Williams, Manaf Bouchentouf, Moutih Rafei, Raphaëlle Romieu-Mourez, Hsiang Chuan Hsieh, Marie-Noëlle Boivin, Shala Yuan, Kathy Ann Forner, Elena Birman, Jacques Galipeau.  A novel dendritic cell generated by a fusion of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-21 induces antigen specific anti-tumor immunity.  J Immunol. 2010;185:7358-66. 
• Patrick Williams, Moutih Rafei, Jennifer Raven, Shala Yuan, Jessica Cuerquis, Kathy Ann Forner, Elena Birman, Jacques Galipeau.  A fusion of GMCSF and IL-21 initiates hypersignaling through the IL-21Rα chain with immune activating and tumoricidal effects in vivo.  Mol Ther. 2010;18:1293-301. 
• Pulsipher MA, Horwitz EM, Haight AE, Kadota R, Chen AR, Frangoul H, Cooper LJN, Jacobsohn DA, Goyal RK, Mitchell D, Nieder ML, Yanik G, Cowan MJ, Soni S, Gardner S, Shenoy S, Taylor D, Cairo M, and Schultz KR. Advancement of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research in North America:  Priorities of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium.   Biol  Blood Marrow Trans  2010;16:1212-21.
• Qayed M, Thompson A, Applegate K, Haight A, Rogatko A, Chiang KY, Horan J.  Is the updated Schwartz formula appropriate for assessing renal function prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation?  Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55:199-201.
• Rafei M, Galipeau J.  A chimeric cytokine for autoimmune diseases. Med Sci (Paris). 2010;26:137-9.
• Raphaëlle Romieu-Mourez, Amanda Abate, Moïra François, Marie-Noëlle Boivin, Elena Birman, Kathy Forner, Christian Young, Jeffrey A. Medin and Jacques Galipeau.  Mesenchymal stromal cells expressing ErbB-2/neu elicit protective anti-breast tumor immunity in vivo, which is paradoxically suppressed by IFN-γ and TNF-α priming.  Cancer Res. 2010 Oct 15;70(20):7742-7. 
• Shaw PJ, Kan F, Ahn KW, Spellman SR, Aljurf M, Ayas M, Burke M, Cairo MS, Chen AR, Davies SM, Frangoul H, Gajewski J, Gale RP, Godder K, Hale GA, Heemskerk MB, Horan J, Kamani N, Kasow KA, Chan KW, Lee SJ, Leung WH, Lewis VA, Miklos D, Oudshoorn M, Petersdorf EW, Ringdén O, Sanders J, Schultz KR, Seber A, Setterholm M, Wall DA, Yu L, Pulsipher MA. Outcomes of pediatric  bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and myelodysplasia using matched sibling, mismatched related or matched unrelated donors. Blood 2010;116:4007-15. 
• Walters MC, Hardy K, Edwards S, Adamkiewicz T, Barkovich J, Bernaudin F, Buchanan GR, Bunin N, Dickerhoff R, Giller R, Haight AE, Haut PR, Horan J, Hsu LL, Kamani N, Levine JE, Margolis D, Ohene-Frempong K, Patience M, Redding-Lallinger R, Roberts IA, Rogers ZR, Sanders JE, Scott JP, Sullivan KM; Multicenter Study of Bone Marrow Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease. Pulmonary, Gonadal, and Central Nervous System Status after Bone Marrow Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease.  Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010;16:263-272. 
• Taljaard M, Ward MR,  Kutryk MJB, Courtman DW,  Camack NJ,  Goodman SG, Parker TG, Dick AJ, Galipeau J, and Stewart DJ.  Rationale and design of Enhanced Angiogenic Cell Therapy in Acute Myocardial Infarction (ENACT-AMI): The first randomized placebo-controlled trial of enhanced progenitor cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction.  Am Heart J. 2010;159:354-360.
• Williams P, Rafei M, Raven J, Yuan S, Cuerquis J, Forner KA,  Birman E, Galipeau J.  A fusion of GMCSF and IL-21 initiates hypersignaling through the IL-21Rα chain with immune activating and tumoricidal effects in vivo.  Mol Ther. 2010;18:1293-301.
• Woolfrey A, Klein JP, Haagenson M, Spellman S, Petersdorf E, Oudshoorn M, Gajewski J, Hale GA, Horan J, Battiwalla M, Marino SR, Setterholm M, Ringden O, Hurley C, Flomenberg N, Anasetti C, Fernandez-Vina M, Lee SJ. HLA-C Antigen mismatches are associated with worse outcomes in unrelated donor peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.  Biol of Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010. [Epub ahead of print.] doi:10.1016/j.bbmt.2010.09.012.
• Woodard P, Carpenter PA, Davies SM, Gross TG, He W, Zhang MJ, Horn BN, Margolis DA, Perentesis JP, Sanders JE, Schultz KR, Seber A, Woods WG, and Eapen M.  Unrelated Donor Bone Marrow Transplantation for Myelodysplastic Syndrome in Children.  Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010 Aug 30. [Epub ahead of print.]  PMID: 20813197 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher].  

Research Collaborations

The Aflac Cancer Center BMT Program conducts leading-edge research in conjunction with the following local, regional and national organizations:

• Emory University School of Medicine
• Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN)
• Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium (PBMTC) 
• Children’s Oncology Group (COG)
• New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT)

  • As a member of NANT, the Aflac Cancer Center is one of 14 universities and children’s hospitals with exclusive access to Phase I and II neuroblastoma clinical trials, many of which involve apheresis and autologous transplant services.