As a leading poxvirus investigator, biotech entrepreneur and international
expert in bio-terrorism, Dr. Grant McFadden is a scientific thinker
in great demand. His 28-person laboratory at Robarts Research
Institute in London studies how proteins created by viruses work
to help those viruses evade detection by the immune systems of
their hosts. The work aims to understand the precise mechanisms
that allow viruses to live in the body, often for many years,
without succumbing to attack by the inflammatory process associated
with the normal immune response to a foreign invader.
It’s an approach
that has led to the development of a number of potential new anti-inflammatory
agents. It builds on a seminal finding by Robarts Scientist Dr.
Alexandra Lucas, a cardiologist, who in 1996 was the first to
demonstrate that viral proteins work like a drug to inhibit the
reformation of arterial plaque – the build-up that leads
to clogged arteries – after angioplasty, a medical expansion
procedure used to improve blood flow in diseased arteries. This
unique finding led Drs. Lucas and McFadden to establish a London-based
biotech company called Viron Therapeutics Inc. One of the compounds
it has developed, known as VT-111, is now in Phase I clinical
trials, the first stage of testing toward its use as a potential
treatment for advanced cardiovascular disease.
He has recently begun
to investigate the anti-immune proteins of Yaba monkey tumour
virus, which causes tumours that appear similar to most common
soft tissue cancers in humans.
Key Research Issues:
Discover novel extracellular viral proteins that inhibit inflammatory
processes.
Analyze the role of intracellular signaling in poxvirus tropism.
Dissect the pathways by which viruses modulate apoptosis.
EDUCATION AND AWARDS
Education Ph.D., McGill
University (Biochemistry), Montreal, Quebec
Postdoctoral Training,
The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Awards:
ASM Division E. Lecture Award, New Orleans
Allan Granoff Lecturer Award, St. Jude's Hospital
Hellmuth Prize for Research Excellence
Marcel-Piche Lectureship, Clinical research Institute of Montreal
Bill Joklik Lectureship, American Society for Virology
Operating Grants, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2)
Operating Grant, National Cancer Institute
Co-founder, Viron Therapeutics, Inc.
Operating Grant, CANVAC Networks of Excellence
Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology
Royal Society of Canada, Fellow
Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Fellow
Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Scholarship
SELECTED PULICATIONS:
1. Sypula, J., Wang, F., Ma, Y., Bell, J.
and McFadden, G. Myxoma virus tropism in human
tumor cells. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology 8:103-114 (2004).
2. Wang, G., Barrett, J.W., Nazarian, S. H., Everett, H., Gao,
X., Bleackley, C., Colwill, K., Moran, M.F. and McFadden,
G. Myxoma virus M11L prevents apoptosis through constitutive
interaction with Bak J. Virology 78:7097-7111 (2004).
3. Johnston, J.B. and McFadden, G. Technical
knockout: understanding poxvirus pathogenesis by selectively deleting
viral immunomodulatory genes. Cellular Microbiology 6(8):695-705
(2004).
4. Wang, F., Ma, Y., Barrett, J.W., Gao, X., Loh, J., Barton,
E., Virgin IV, H.W. and G. McFadden, Disruption
of ERK1/2 MAP kinase-dependent induction of type I interferon
breaks myxoma virus species barrier. Nature Immunology 24 October
2004 doi:10.1038/ni1132.
5. Lucas, A. and G. McFadden. Secreted immunomodulatory
proteins as novel biotherapeutics. J. Immunology 173:4765-4774
(2004).
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