Jonathan Fogle, DVM, PhD

Dr. Fogle is an Assistant Professor of Immunology at the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine where he is also the director of the Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core Facility.  His Comparative Immunology Research Laboratory is focused upon T cell immunity, T cell immune dysfunction, and the interaction of T cells with each other and with cells of the innate immune system.  As such, the primary research focus areas in his group are 1) Feline Immunodeficiency Virus as a model for HIV T cell immune dysfunction and 2) bolstering T cell immune responses to neoplasia.  Their most active areas of investigation in comparative oncology are described in his words below.

Monocytes, macrophages, and infection in modulating immune responses to osteosarcoma: The hypothesis of this project is that there are phenotypic differences manifested as variations in the intensity and type of cell surface receptor expression, as well as functional differences such as varying levels of immune activation, between monocytes of normal dogs, untreated osteosarcoma dogs, treated osteosarcoma dogs, and osteosarcoma dogs with associated surgical infections. We have clearly identified phenotypic differences between monocytes from normal dogs and osteosarcoma dogs, and preliminary data suggest there may be important functional differences. These differences will enable us to start differentiating canine monocytes into understanding which characteristics may be associated with improved survival and, more importantly, help us to understand how to “reprogram” the monocyte to enable anti-tumor function.  The dog is an excellent naturally occurring model of monocyte activation and this will create significant interest in the funding of a canine model of spontaneous disease.

Nanoparticle therapy stimulates a potent immune response against metastatic breast cancer: The proposed nanoparticle treatment strategy is unique because the underlying mechanisms result in more efficient processing of tumor antigens (proteins) by the immune system and thus activation of the immune response against the cancer. This immune response attacks both the treated tumor, as well as distant, metastatic lesions, essentially generating an in vivo vaccination against the tumor with a long-lived memory response. This method has already demonstrated efficacy in other mouse tumor models.  The purpose of these investigations is to define the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immune response to breast cancer following MCL therapy.  Working with our industry partner, Kaio Therapy, these investigations are part of a series of investigations that comprise the foundation for initiating human clinical trials.