As a surgeon-scientist with a background in translational therapeutics for tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), Dr. Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge is focused on developing and implementing novel treatment approaches for this patient population. He has a long-standing interest in translational therapeutics which started during his MD/PhD training in the Medical Scientist Training Program at The Ohio State University while working in the laboratories of Dr. Antonio Chiocca and Dr. Michael Caligiuri. Under their mentorship, he studied the role of innate immunity in the context of oncolytic viral therapy for glioblastoma, making significant mechanistic discoveries related to natural ki...
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As a surgeon-scientist with a background in translational therapeutics for tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), Dr. Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge is focused on developing and implementing novel treatment approaches for this patient population. He has a long-standing interest in translational therapeutics which started during his MD/PhD training in the Medical Scientist Training Program at The Ohio State University while working in the laboratories of Dr. Antonio Chiocca and Dr. Michael Caligiuri. Under their mentorship, he studied the role of innate immunity in the context of oncolytic viral therapy for glioblastoma, making significant mechanistic discoveries related to natural killer cell recognition of virally infected tumors and selective tumor clearance. Following his MD/PhD training, he completed neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Priscilla Brastianos, focusing on tumor microenvironmental features of response to immunotherapy for CNS metastases. Using next-generation sequencing approaches, he investigated dynamic shifts of immune cell states at a single-cell resolution in the setting of immune checkpoint blockade for leptomeningeal disease and melanoma brain metastases. Following his neurosurgery residency training, he completed a one-year neurosurgical oncology fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer prior to joining the Department of Neurosurgery as an Assistant Professor in September of 2021. Dr. Alvarez-Breckenridge has leveraged his extensive research background in oncolytic viral therapy and CNS metastases to develop a cutting-edge proposal exploring the role of oncolytic adenoviral therapy to mediate antitumor immunity against melanoma brain metastases in both the pre-clinical and clinical setting. Additionally, he has crafted an impressive mentorship team that understands the challenges both of translational therapeutics and succeeding as a surgeon-scientist.
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