Zhen Fan
Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Experimental Therapeutics
Our research applies emerging knowledge and new concepts in cancer biology and tumor immunology to the design and development of new cancer therapeutics. A tutorial in my laboratory will offer training in critical thinking and in skill set needed for students interested in drug discovery and development. Through dissertation study, the training will prepare the students to enter emerging new technological workforce after graduation and to be ready for career advancement in academia, industry or other professions.
Specifically, our laboratory is interested in development of antibody-based biologics for cancer treatment. The current research in my lab focuses mainly on 2 directions. One direction is to develop novel bispecific antibody (BsAbs)-based cancer therapies. By utilizing cutting-edge recombinant antibody technology and innovative strategies to engineer new BsAbs and antibody fusion protein biologics, we are striving to develop second-generation antibody-based drugs that have multiple functions and thus are expected to work better than the first-generation antibody drugs currently used to treat cancer patients.
Another direction is to repurpose host preexisting non-cancer immunity acquired through vaccination or infection of infectious viruses for cancer immunotherapy. Our strategy is to develop an antibody targeting-based approach to trick host immune system to perceive cancer cells as infectious virus-infected cells and thereby launch immune response to attack the cancer cells using powerful preexisting immunity acquired via vaccination or infection of an infectious virus. An example of our research strategy is to redirect host preexisting influenza A immunity for cancer immunotherapy by developing a therapeutic approach for systemic delivery of MHC-I-compatible influenza A-related peptides to targeted tumors.
Education & Training
MD, Shanghai Medical University, 1985