Leveraging the combination of oncolytic virotherapy and immune checkpoint blockade in soft tissue sarcoma -- Steven Ian Robinson, MBBS

The Foundation's Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program was designed to provide four-year awards for postdoctoral research to clinician-scientists from historically underrepresented groups who are committed to developing careers in academia, improving the health of underserved populations, furthering scientific understanding, and eliminating health disparities.Soft tissue sarcomas are comprised of a rare group of tumors of connective tissue origin. Effective therapies are limited in this orphan group of diseases. Oncolytic viruses have the advantage of direct tumor lysis, and immunostimulatory properties with the potential to overcome the present resistance mechanisms hampering the current novel therapeutic agents. The Participant hypothesizes that oncolytic strains of the measles virus will have an immunostimulatory effect in the tumor microenvironment of soft tissue sarcomas, and be synergistic in combination with immune checkpoint blockade therapy. This grant provides postdoctoral support to the Participant to generate preliminary data to facilitate the first clinical trial leveraging the combination of oncolytic measles virus in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.