Wei Chen, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor
MMC 806
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 625-7609
Fax: (612) 624-3913
chenw@umn.edu

Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and the Cancer Center, University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Chen is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of immune-based therapies for hematological malignancies.

Dr. Chen received his medical degree in 1982 and his doctorate degree in immunology in 1987 from Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, China. Dr. Chen completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, from 1988-90. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1999, Dr. Chen was a Research Assistant Professor at the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington from 1991-96, and Associate Staff at the Departments of Surgery, Hematology-Oncology and Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center, Cleveland, Ohio, from 1996-99.

Dr. Chen's research is focused on developing immune-based therapies of cancer, with particular research interest in treating leukemia, lymphoma and hematological malignancies. His research group is developing new strategies to activate cancer patient's own immune cells, which have the ability to specifically recognize and kill tumor cells. The goal of his research is to apply cancer vaccines, cellular therapies, and novel immune enhancing drugs to prevent and treat tumor recurrences following chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Chen has published more than 50 research papers in medical journals on basic and clinical cancer research. Dr. Chen is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Hematology, and the American Association of Clinical Oncology. He is a Member of American Cancer Society National Grants Committee, the Principle Investigator and Chair of American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants Committee, and a Member of Leukemia Research Foundation Medical Advisory Board and National Grants Committee.

Honors and Awards

• 1987 First award for young immunologists
• 1988 Silver snake award of medicine
• 1988 Second science advancement award
• 1999 Lehman/CCRF endowed chair in pediatric cancer research
• 2001 McKnight presidential fellow award
• 2002 Endowed scholar by Regents of the University of Minnesota
• 2004 Alexander Charles Jundt research award

Research Interests

1. Immunotherapy with antigen-specific T cells
   Leukemia-specific T cell induction and antitumor effects
   Molecular mechanisms of regulatory T cell induction
   
2. TLR-targeted immunotherapy of hematological malignancies
   Mechanisms of CpG ODN-mediated antitumor immunity
   TLR agonists-based immunotherapy of human leukemias
   
3. Immunobiology of human dendritic cell (DC) subsets
   Development and immune regulatory function of DC subsets
   Dendritic cell-based leukemia vaccines
   

Selected Recent Publications

Bendriss-Vermare N., Burg S., Kanzler H, Chaperot L, Duhen T, de Bouteiller O, D'agostini1 M, Bridon J, Durand E, Sederstrom JM, Chen W, Plumas J, Jacob MC, Liu YJ, Garrone P, Trinchieri G, Brière F.  Type 1 and type 2-promoting signals of plasmacytoid dendritic cells induce NK versus CD4 memory T cell migration. J. Leukocyte Biology 78:954-966, 2005

Wu A, Xiao J, Hall WA, Gregerson DS, Chen W, and Low W.  Identification of EGFRvIII-Derived CTL epitopes restricted HLA-A0201 for dendritic cell based immunotherapy of gliomas.  J. Nuro-Oncology.  71:46-54, 2005

Chen W.  The role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in immunity and tolerance.  Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation.  10:181-185, 2005

Chen W., Chan A.S.H., Dawson A.J., Liang X.Q., Blazar B.R., and Miller J.M.:  FLT3-ligand administration after autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation increases circulating dendritic cell precursors that can be further activated by CpG oligodeoxynucleotides to enhance T-cell and NK-cell function.  Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation 11:23-34, 2005

Chen W., Antonenko S., Sederstrom J.M., Liang X.Q, Chan A.S.H., Kanzler H., Blom B., Blazar B.R., and Liu Y.J.:  Thrombopoietin cooperates with FLT3-ligand in the generation of plasmacytoid dendritic cell precursors from human hematopoietic progenitors.  Blood.  103:2547-2553, 2004

Vallera D.A., Ni J., Shu Y., Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Kelekar A., and Chen W.: Retroviral immunotoxin gene therapy of leukemia in mice using leukemia-specific T cells transduced with IL-3/BAX hybrid gene.  Human Gene Therapy.  14:1787-1798, 2003

Weigel B. J., Nath N., Taylor P. A., Panoskaltsis-Mortari A., Chen W., Krieg, A. M., and Blazar, B. R.: Comparative Analysis of murine marrow-derived dendritic cells generated by Flt3L or GM-CSF/IL4 and matured with immune stimulatory agents on the in vivo induction of anti-leukemia responses.  Blood.  100:4169-4176, 2002

 Ni J., Chen W., Blazar B. R., Ramakrishnan S., and Vallera D. A.: Gene therapy of murine solid tumors with T cells transduced with a retroviral vascular endothelial growth factor--immunotoxin target gene.  Human Gene Therapy.  13:497-508, 2002