Dr. Gao is the co-founder of Voyager Therapeutics, Adrenas Therapeutics and Aspa Therapeutics. His research laboratory receives financial support from sponsored research agreements with various companies including Merck and LuYe Pharma. The other Topic Editors declare no conflict of interest with regards to the Research Topic theme

Autoimmune diseases are diverse and responsible for considerable morbidity. Their etiology remains largely unknown, and current therapy with anti-inflammatory drugs is prone to adverse effects, and rarely curative. New therapies with anti-cytokine antibodies or receptors are promising, but require frequent administration of expensive protein drugs. Gene Therapy of Autoimmune Diseases comprehensively reviews research in gene therapy for autoimmune diseases with viral or non-viral vectors. Gene therapy offers the possibility of long-term, continuous delivery of a wide variety of immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, or tolerance-inducing agents. Moreover, highly specific genetically modified cells can be produced. This book discusses the most promising avenues in this exciting new field.

Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Integrated Methods - Part A, Volume 635 in the Methods in Enzymology series, continues the legacy of this premier serial with quality chapters authored by leaders in the field. Specific chapters to this release include Deconvolution of the immunological contexture of mouse tumors with multiplexed immunohistochemistry, High-dimensional multiplexed immunohistochemical characterization of immune contexture in human cancers, Multiplex assay by IHC for melanoma tumor microenvironment evaluation, Characterization of the tumor immune microenvironment by multispectral image analysis of multiplex immunofluorescence images, Phenotyping of immune cells in situ using multispectral imaging quantification, and much more. - Authored by leaders in the field of enzymology - Provides a comprehensiveness level of discussion on the field - Presents a highly specialized group of topics that delve deep into new updates and future prospects

Delivery Technologies for Immuno-Oncology: Volume 1: Delivery Strategies and Engineering Technologies in Cancer Immunotherapy examines the challenges of delivering immuno-oncology therapies. Immuno-oncology (IO) is a growing field of medicine at the interface of immunology and cancer biology leading to development of novel therapeutic approaches, such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) and immune checkpoint blockade antibodies, that are clinically approved approaches for cancer therapy. Although currently approved IO approaches have shown tremendous promise for select types of cancers, broad application of IO strategies could even further improve the clinical success, especially for diseases such as pancreatic cancer, brain tumors where the success of IO so far has been limited. Nanotechnology-based targeted delivery strategies could improve the delivery efficiency of IO agents as well as provide additional avenues for novel therapeutic and vaccination strategies. Additionally, a number of locally-administered immunogenic scaffolds and therapeutic strategies, such as the use of STING agonist, could benefit from rationally designed biomaterials and delivery approaches. Delivery Technologies for Immuno-Oncology: Volume 1: Delivery Strategies and Engineering Technologies in Cancer Immunotherapy creates a comprehensive treaty that engages the scientific and medical community who are involved in the challenges of immunology, cancer biology, and therapeutics with possible solutions from the nanotechnology and drug delivery side. - Comprehensive treaty covering all aspects of immuno-oncology (IO) - Novel strategies for delivery of IO therapeutics and vaccines - Forecasting on the future of nanotechnology and drug delivery for IO

1. Non-viral gene therapy / Sean M. Sullivan -- 2. Adenoviral vectors / Stuart A. Nicklin and Andrew H. Baker -- 3. Retroviral vectors and integration analysis / Cynthia C. Bartholomae [und weitere] -- 4. Lentiviral vectors / Janka Matrai, Marinee K.L. Chuah and Thierry VandenDriessche -- 5. Herpes simplex virus vectors / William F. Goins [und weitere] -- 6. Adeno-Associated Viral (AAV) vectors / Nicholas Muzyczka -- 7. Regulatory RNA in gene therapy / Alfred. S. Lewin -- 8. DNA integrating vectors (Transposon, Integrase) / Lauren E. Woodard and Michele P. Calos -- 9. Homologous recombination and targeted gene modification for gene therapy / Matthew Porteus -- 10. Gene switches for pre-clinical studies in gene therapy / Caroline Le Guiner [und weitere] -- 11. Gene therapy for central nervous system disorders / Deborah Young and Patricia A. Lawlor -- 12. Gene therapy of hemoglobinopathies / Angela E. Rivers and Arun Srivastava -- 13. Gene therapy for primary immunodeficiencies / Aisha Sauer, Barbara Cassani and Alessandro Aiuti -- 14. Gene therapy for hemophilia / David Markusic, Babak Moghimi and Roland Herzog -- 15. Gene therapy for obesity and diabetes / Sergei Zolotukhin and Clive H. Wasserfall -- 16. Gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy / Takashi Okada and Shin'ichi Takeda -- 17. Cancer gene therapy / Kirsten A.K. Weigel-Van Aken -- 18. Gene therapy for autoimmune disorders / Daniel F. Gaddy, Melanie A. Ruffner and Paul D. Robbins -- 19. Gene therapy for inherited metabolic storage diseases / Cathryn Mah -- 20. Retinal diseases / Shannon E. Boye, Sanford L. Boye and William W. Hauswirth -- 21. A brief guide to gene therapy treatments for pulmonary diseases / Ashley T. Martino, Christian Mueller and Terence R. Flotte -- 22. Cardiovascular disease / Darin J. Falk, Cathryn S. Mah and Barry J. Byrne

The Second Edition of Gene Therapy of Cancer provides crucial updates on the basic science and ongoing research in this field, examining the state of the art technology in gene therapy and its therapeutic applications to the treatment of cancer. The clinical chapters are improved to include new areas of research and more successful trials. Chapters emphasize the scientific basis of gene therapy using immune, oncogene, antisense, pro-drug activating, and drug resistance gene targets, while other chapters discuss therapeutic approaches and clinical applications. This book is a valuable reference for anyone needing to stay abreast of the latest advances in gene therapy treatment for cancer. - Provides in-depth description of targeted systems and treatment strategies - Explains the underlying cancer biology necessary for understanding a given therapeutic approach - Extensively covers immune therapeutics of vaccines, cytokines, and peptide-induced responses - Presents translational focus with emphasis on requirements for clinical implementation - Incorporates detailed illustrations of vectors and therapeutic approaches ideal for classroom presentations and general reference

Immunotherapy is a clinically proven concept to prevent and treat diverse diseases. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have transformed cancer patient survival and the quality of life for patients with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Vaccination with attenuated viruses or microbial virulence factors is a validated strategy to control infectious disease and has eradicated the global pandemic Smallpox infection. Recently, the concept of encoding transgenes, such as the receptor-binding COVID-19 spike protein, cytokines, antibodies, or immunogenic tumor antigens into non-viral or viral vectors has been validated as a powerful means to achieve vaccination for protection against pandemic infections, and cancer immunotherapy respectively. For certain immunotherapeutic targets and mechanisms, vector-based targeting offers distinct advantages over the traditional protein format. For example, in cancer immunotherapy vectorization may enable local delivery, production, and tumor-enriched exposure of powerful immune-modulatory antibodies, for example anti-CTLA-4 or anti-CD28 that are too toxic to allow full therapeutic dosing upon systemic administration.

This book presents a detailed overview of the development of new viral vector-based vaccines before discussing two major applications: preventive vaccines for infectious diseases and therapeutic cancer vaccines. Viral vector-based vaccines hold a great potential for development into successful pharmaceutical products and several examples at the advanced pre-clinical or clinical stage are presented. Nevertheless, the most efforts were focused on novel and very innovative technologies for new generation of vector-based vaccines. Furthermore, specific topics such as delivery and adjuvant and protection strategies for cell-mediated-based vaccines are presented. Given its scope, the book is a “must read” for all those involved in vaccine development, both in academia and industrial vaccine development.

Summarises and reviews the important field of genetic therapy with respect to the latest immunological advances in the lab and clinic Unique treatment of immunology and immunotherapy in gene - approached from a vector and target organ point of view rather than from the perspective a specific diseases Broad appeal - applicable for immunology and genetics / gene therapy, recombinant DNA studies, transplantation, virology, cancer research and tumor research