Balveen Kaur, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
Director, Research Relations
Chief, Dardinger Laboratory for Neuro-Oncology and Neurosciences
Curriculum Vitae

Training

Undergraduate School:	Delhi University, New Delhi, India
Graduate School:	M.S., Biotechnology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, 1989-1991 Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1994-1999
Postdoctorate Fellowship:	Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999-2003
Research Associate:	Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2003-2004
Senior Research Associate:	Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2004-2005

Research Interests

Gliomas are the most common primary tumor of the central nervous system. Despite decades of intensive research efforts, the prognosis of patients afflicted with malignant astrocytoma remains dismal. The growing tumor alters its microenvironment in multifaceted ways. Uncontrolled proliferation of tumor cells results in necrotic hypoxic areas, which, in turn, trigger hypoxic responses by both stromal and tumor cells. The tumor cells further alter their microenvironment by secreting a plethora of growth factors and extracellular matrix proteins that influence the surrounding host stromal and endothelial cells, causing devastating consequences for the host.

The primary focus of Dr. Kaur’s laboratory is to understand the changes in the microenvironment of the tumor, with the ultimate goal of devising better treatment strategies. Treatment with oncolytic viruses (OV) employs genetically engineered viruses with deletion of some of their viral genes, which enables selective replication of the OVs only in rapidly dividing cancer cells. However, despite the findings of “cures” using OVs in animal models of glioma, recent results from clinical trials in humans have proven therapies with OVs to be safe, but not as efficacious as expected. Host immune responses elicited upon infection with OV may prove deleterious to this therapy.

We have used Affymetrix rat genome arrays to investigate systematically host stromal responses to infection with OVs against brain tumors in a rat syngeneic immune competent model of brain tumors. The goal is to study potential mechanisms whereby oncolytic viruses could “fail” or be less effective when applied to humans. The laboratory is also investigating novel mechanisms to disrupt the tumor-induced changes in vascular biology to develop therapeutic strategies that may be used alone or in combination with oncolytic virus to augment existing treatment modalities.

Figure adapted from Kaur et al., (2005), Neuro-Oncology. 7(2):134-153.
Click on image above to see a larger view.

Appointment Year

2005

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