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Randall E. Merchant, Ph.D.
Professor, joint
appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery
B.S., Natural Sciences, St. Mary's College (1973)
M.S., Anatomy, University
of North Dakota (1976)
Ph.D., Anatomy, University of North Dakota (1978)
Postdoctoral training in Experimental Oncology at the University of Zurich
| Office Address: | | Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology | | | | Virginia
Commonwealth University Medical Campus | | | | Box 980709 | | | | Richmond, VA
23298-0709 | | Office
Phone: | | (804) 828-9528 | | FAX: | | (804) 828-9477 | | e-mail: | | rmerchan@vcu.edu |
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RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY INTERESTS
Even though patients with malignant glioma typically have impaired cell-mediated
immune functions, the frequent occurrence of a lymphocytic infiltration in these
tumors suggests that immune responses are possible. Therefore, the focus of our
laboratory's research has been on immunotherapy as a treatment modality for these
types of tumor. Our efforts have centered on the development and use of tumor
cell vaccines to be used alone or in combination with adoptively transferred
lymphocytes in an attempt to restore and/or enhance reactivity of the patient's
immune system for their tumor. Over the past few years, we have performed both
preclinical and Phase I clinical trials of a new adoptive immunotherapy protocol
using glioma- sensitized T cells and, more recently, using vaccines which have
been transfected with genes encoding for cytokines. These cytokines enhance the
immunogenicity of the vaccine since the vaccine cells themselves secrete the
factors that attract and activate T lymphocytes and antigen-presenting cells.
Thus making them more recognizable as "foreign" by the immune system.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Merchant, R.E., Rice, C.D., Baldwin, N.G., Bear, H.D.: Adoptive immunotherapy of
malignant glioma using tumor-sensitized lymphocytes. Neurol. Res., 19:145-152,
1997.
Chi, D.D.J., Merchant, R.E., Rand, R., Conrad, A.J., Garrison, D., Morton, D.L.,
Hoon, D.S.B.: Molecular detection of tumor-associated antigens shared by human
cutaneous melanomas and gliomas. Am. J. Pathol., 150:2143-2152, 1997.
Graf, M.R., Merchant, R.E.: Interleukin-6 transduction of a rat T9 glioma clone
results in attenuated tumorigenicity and induces glioma immunity in Fischer F344
rats. J. Neuro-Oncol., In Press, 2000.
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