Zoran Galic, PhD

Dr. Zoran Galic's work is focused on modeling hematopoiesis, particularly T- and NK-cell development from human embryonic stem cells (hESC), induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) and human hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in small animal models. One of the goals of his research is to try to improve the function of the immune system by genetically engineering stem cells to produce individual blood cell types with increased abilities to fight cancer, infectious agents and/or to prevent autoimmune diseases. As the principal investigator on a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)-funded grant, Galic guided research establishing that a T-cell receptor (TCR) specific for a cancer epitope can be genetically engineered into hESC and expressed in hESC-derived T-lineage cells. In addition, he is also trying to produce thymic epithelial cells from hESC and hiPSC, with the final goal of utilizing these cells to improve and rejuvenate thymic function in vivo, or to establish more efficient systems for thymopoiesis in vitro. Finally, in his current work he successfully derived NK-cells from hESC transduced with anti-HIV and anti-tumor (CD19) chimeric antigen receptors and is now evaluating their anti-viral and anti-tumor properties.

Vatakis DN, Koya RC, Nixon CC, Wei L, Kim SG, Avancena P, Bristol G, Baltimore D, Kohn DB, Ribas A, Radu CG, Galic Z, Zack JA. Antitumor activity from antigen-specific CD8 T cells generated in vivo from genetically engineered human hematopoietic stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 20;108(51):E1408-16. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115050108. Epub 2011 Nov 28.

Galic Z, Kitchen SG, Subramanian A, Bristol G, Marsden MD, Balamurugan A, Kacena A, Yang O, Zack JA. Generation of T lineage cells from human embryonic stem cells in a feeder free system. Stem Cells. 2009 Jan;27(1):100-7. doi: 10.1634/stemcells.2008-0813.

Kitchen SG, Bennett M, Galic Z, Kim J, Xu Q, Young A, Lieberman A, Joseph A, Goldstein H, Ng H, Yang O, Zack JA. Engineering antigen-specific T cells from genetically modified human hematopoietic stem cells in immunodeficient mice. PLoS One. 2009 Dec 7;4(12):e8208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008208.

Subramanian A, Guo B, Marsden MD, Galic Z, Kitchen S, Kacena A, Brown HJ, Cheng G, Zack JA. Macrophage differentiation from embryoid bodies derived from human embryonic stem cells. J Stem Cells. 2009;4(1):29-45. doi: jsc.2009.4.1.29.

Galic Z, Kitchen SG, Kacena A, Subramanian A, Burke B, Cortado R, Zack JA. T lineage differentiation from human embryonic stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 1;103(31):11742-7. Epub 2006 Jul 14.