#1. Trastuzumab for breast cancer.
‘Magic Bullet’ started with research aimed at the role of growth factors and their receptors in tumor cell resistance to the innate immune system. This work at Genentech culminated in the discovery of Herceptin/trastuzumab, an antibody that has now been used to treat more than 2.3 million breast cancer patients with HER2-positive disease. This was the FIRST approved antibody to treat solid tumors. Shepard shared the Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard Medical School and later the Lasker Prize for this breakthrough. A summary of this work has been published in Nature magazine (Trastuzumab: dreams, desperation, and hope).
#2.Gene therapy for bladder cancer.
Shepard's Team at Canji, Inc. created the FIRST approved gene therapy targeting a solid tumor.
The name of this therapeutic is mind boggling--
nadofaragene firadenovec (Adstiladrin).
#3. Enzyme Catalyzed Therapeutic Agents (ECTA).
A new class of therapeutics called Thymectacins that are activated by enzymes overexpressed only in tumor cells, thus providing effective tumor killing without harming healthy tissues.
#4. Tumor-activated form of adenosine deaminase
(ADA2). This engineered enzyme is preferentially activated within tumors and degrades immunosuppressive adenosine that accumulates in the tumor microenvironment. This results in the reactivation of T cell killing and tumor regression in mouse models.
