Women’s Health and Breast Cancer

Biography

Yvone Paterson is Professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. As a Professor of Microbiology, Paterson is an active educator and trainer and is the PI of several training grants and programs. Her research is in the field of cancer vaccines where she was the first investigator to use Listeria monocytogenes, as a vector to target tumor-associated antigens to the immune system. She has pioneered the application of this organism in vaccine development for over 20 years. Her laboratory was the first to show that this bacterium could be genetically engineered to target antigens to the MHC class I pathway for antigen processing with the induction of cytotoxic T cells, the first to show that it could provide protective immunity against viral challenge and the first to apply the technology for the immunotherapy of cancer. In partnership with Advaxis Inc., a company she founded in 2002, the Listeria based technology is now in a number of clinical trials. Overall, these trials have shown that Listeria based immunotherapeutics are safe to use in humans and result in significantly prolonged survival and, in some cases, complete and partial remissions.

Research Interest

Yvone Paterson research is in the field of cancer vaccines where she was the first investigator to use Listeria monocytogenes, as a vector to target tumor-associated antigens to the immune system.