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Toru Kondo

Hokkaido University, Japan

Presentation Title:

Development of novel miR-dependent genome-editing Adeno-associated virus that selectively eradicates glioblastoma-initiating cells

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most malignant human cancers, frequently recurs despite multimodal treatment with surgery and chemo/radiotherapies. One of the reasons of why GBM recues is likely the existence of GBM-initiating cells (GICs) that have strong proliferative and tumorigenic abilities and are resistant to various types of chemotherapies and radiotherapy. It is therefore crucial to find novel methods that specifically kill GICs by targeting their characteristics. Previously, we have identified various factors, such as membrane proteins, transcription factors and microRNA (miR), which increase or decrease in GICs compared with normal neural stem cells (NSC), and demonstrated their functions in GICs. On the process developing novel methods for GBM therapy, we noticed that these factors are considerably expressed in the cells of non-central nervous system, suggesting the concerned side effects if we target these factors for therapy. To overcome this hurdle, we combined our previous findings with the genome-editing system and developed new miR-dependent genome-editing Adeno-associated virus (AAV) that selectively killed GICs without the off-target effects to normal cells. I will present the anti-tumorigenic ability of our new AAV in my talk.

Key words: glioblastoma, GIC, miR, genome-editing, AAV 

Biography

Toru Kondo is currently working as Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Genetic Medicine (IGM) Hokkaido University. He has received his PhD on the development of the Sendai virus vector from Osaka University. He worked at the Osaka Bioscience Institute and University College London MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, as a postdoctoral fellow. He then worked as a principal investigator at the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair (Group Leader), RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) (Team Leader), and Ehime University Proteo-Medicine Research Center (Professor). He He has been serving as an Associate Editor of “Stem Cells”, an editorial board member of six international journals and a council member of the Japanese Association for Molecular Target Therapy of Cancer.