Robert M Prins, PhD

Robert M. Prins, PhD
Associate Professor

Hospital Affiliation
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Department of Neurosurgery
PO Box 956901
Los Angeles, CA 90095-6901

Contact: (310) 825-4207

EDUCATION

B.S., Kinesiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (1992)
M.S., Physiological Science, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (1996)
Ph.D., Anatomy and Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA (2001)
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA (2001)
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (2002)

RESEARCH AREA

Dr. Prins's research group studies immune-based therapies for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Currently, patients presenting with such malignancies are left with few treatment options. His research group is attempting to apply what we learn from pre-clinical models towards the implementation of immunotherapy clinical trials for brain tumor patients. Our work is currently involved in the following pre-clinical and clinical studies.

GRANTS

K01 CA111402-01A2 (P.I., Prins, R.M.) 7/1/06-6/30/11
NIH/NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE, Howard Temin Award
Title: “Immune Targeting of Melanoma Antigens in Glioma”
R01-CA112358 (P.I.: Liau, L.M.) (Role: Co-Investigator) 4/1/06-3/31/11
NIH / NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
Title: “ Dendritic Cell-based Vaccine Targeting MAA in Malignant Gliomas”
RO1-CA121131(P.I., Liau, L.M.) (Role: Co-Investigator) 4/1/06-3/31/11
NIH/NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
Title: PACAP Modulation of Shh Signaling in Medulloblastoma
R01-CA116695-01A1 (P.I., Graf, M.R., Medical College of Virginia) 04/01/06-03/31/09
NIH/NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
Title: T Cell Suppression by Immature Myeloid Cells in Gliomas
Role: Co-Investigator (subcontract with Medical College of Virginia)
RO1-CA123396-01 (P.I., Prins, R.M.) *(Funded @ 2.9%) 4/1/07-3/31/11
NIH/NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
Title: CNS Anti-tumor immunity induced by dendritic cell vaccination and TLR agonists
No number assigned (P.I., Prins, R.M.) 5/1/08-4/30/09
UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center FOUNDATION
Title: Epigenetic Immunosensitization of Intracranial Melanoma with the Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor, LBH589, for Adoptive Transfer Immunotherapy.

LINKS

http://neurosurgery.ucla.edu

AWARDS/INVENTIONS

IND # 11053. Drug Name: Autologous Dendritic Cells Derived from PBMC, Cultured with GM-CSF and IL-4, and Pulsed with Autologous Tumor Lysate. Trial Name: Phase I dose escalation study of autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell immunotherapy for malignant gliomas.
IND # 12966. Drug Name: Autologous dendritic cells pulsed with glioma-associated antigens. Trial Name: Phase I/II Study of Glioma-Associated Antigen (GAA) Peptide-pulsed Dendritic Cell Vaccination in Malignant Glioma Patients.
2000 Phi Kappa Phi Award; Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia
2000 C.C Clayton Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia
2001 Jack Denning Burke Award; VCU/MCV Department of Anatomy Outstanding Graduate Student in Cell Biology
2001 Osterud Award; VCU/MCV Department of Anatomy Outstanding Graduate Student
2002 Co-PI, Grant from Northwest Biotherapeutics. Treatment of CNS gliomas with intracranial IFN-? and dendritic cells pulsed with allogeneic peptides.
2002 UCLA Tumor Immunology Training fellowship (5-T32-CA09120-28).
2002 Fellowship, Norman Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.
2005 Fellowship, NCI Cancer Education Grant, R25 CA 098010, Scholars in Oncologic Molecular Imaging (SOMI)
2005-06 UCLA Chancellor's Professional Development award
2006-11 K01 CA111402 Howard Temin Research Scientist Development Award
2008-11 STOP CANCER Research Career Development Award
2008-09 UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Collaborative grant award

PUBLICATIONS (recent articles)

Noah Craft, Kevin W. Bruhn, Bidong D. Nguyen, Robert M. Prins, Jia Wei Lin, Linda M. Liau and Jeff F. Miller. The toll-like receptor 7 agonist imiquimod enhances anti-melanoma immunity as a vaccine adjuvant. J Immunol. 2005 Aug 1;175(3):1983-1990.
Noah Craft, Kevin W. Bruhn, Bidong D. Nguyen, Robert M. Prins, Linda M. Liau, Eric A. Collison, Abhijit De, Michael S. Kolodney, Sanjiv S. Gambhir, and Jeff F. Miller. Bioluminescent imaging of melanoma in live mice. J Invest Dermatol. 2005 Jul;125(1):159-65.
Liau LM, Prins RM, Kiertscher SM, Odesa SK, Kremen TJ, Giovannone AJ, Lin. JW, Chute DJ, Mischel PS, Cloughesy TF, Roth MD. Dendritic cell vaccination in glioblastoma patients induces systemic and intracranial T-cell responses modulated by the local central nervous system tumor microenvironment.Clin Cancer Res. 2005 Aug 1;11(15):5515-25.
Robert M. Prins, Kevin W. Bruhn, Noah Craft, Jia Wei Lin, Sylvia K. Odesa, Jeff F. Miller and Linda M. Liau. Protective CNS Tumor Immunity Generated by a Recombinant Listeria Monocytogenes Vector Targeting TRP-2 and Real Time Imaging of Delayed Tumor Progression. Neurosurgery, 2006 Jan; 58(1): 169-78.
Robert M. Prins, Noah Craft, Kevin Bruhn, Haumith Khan-Farooqi, Richard Koya, Renata Stripecke, Jeff F. Miller and Linda M. Liau. The Toll-like Receptor-7 Agonist, Imiquimod, Enhances Dendritic Cell Survival and Promotes Self Tumor antigen-specific T Cell Priming: Relation to CNS Anti-tumor Immunity, J Immunol. 2006 Jan 1; 176(1):157-64.
Robert M. Prins, Dan Vo, Haumith Khan-Farooqi, Meng-Yin Yang, Horacio Soto, James S. Economou, Linda M. Liau and Antoni Ribas. NK and CD4 Cells Collaborate to Protect Against Melanoma Tumor Formation in the Brain, J Immunol. 2006 Dec 15;177(12):8448-55.
Takahiro Kimura, Richard C. Koya, Laura Anselmi, Catia Sternini, He-jing Wang, Begonya Comin-Anduix, Robert M. Prins, Emmanuelle Faure-Kumar, Nora Rozengurt, Yan Cui, Noriyuki Kasahara and Renata Stripecke. Lentiviral Vectors with CMV or MHCII Promoters Administered In Vivo: Immune Reactivity Versus Persistence of Expression.Mol Ther. 2007 Jul;15(7):1390-9. Epub 2007 May 1.
Robert M. Prins, Chengyi J. Shu, Dan D. Vo, Haumith Khan-Farooqi, Horacio Soto, Caius Radu, Meng-Yin Yang, Stephanie Shelly, Owen N.Witte, Linda M. Liau and Antoni Ribas. Anti-tumor activity and trafficking of self, tumor-specific T cells against tumors located in the brain. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2008 Feb 6; [Epub ahead of print].
Robert M. Prins, Timothy F. Cloughesy and Linda M. Liau. Cytomegalovirus immunity after vaccination with autologous glioblastoma lysate. N Engl J Med. 2008 Jul 31;359(5):539-41.
Jonathan Begley, Dan D. Vo, Lilah F. Morris, Kevin W. Bruhn, Robert M. Prins, Stephen Mok, Richard C. Koya, Hermes J. Garban, Begonya Comin-Anduix, Noah Craft and Antoni Ribas. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2008 Sept 21; [Epub ahead of print].
Chengyi J. Shu, Caius Radu, Robert Prins, Stephanie Shelly, Dan D. Vo, Evan D. Nair-Gill, Antoni Ribas and Owen N. Witte. Quantitative PET Reporter Imaging of CD8+ T-cells Specific for a Melanoma-expressed Self Antigen. Int Immunol, 2009, In Press.