Research: Laboratory Program –
Alice Taylor, Ph.D.

Dr. Taylor is currently a Junior Member of the GSCC. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City in 1996, working with Dr. H.W. Murray on gene therapy for cure of leishmaniasis, and the role of IFN-gamma, GM-CSF and TNF-alpha in the resolution of leishmaniasis (1-3). In post-doctoral studies she investigated a Cryptosporidium parvum antigen, antibodies against which were found in all resistant patients. She also developed an assay for and screened sera from HIV-infected and normal controls for a survey documenting the prevalence of exposure to C. parvum. She has been with GSCC for 3 years working on post-treatment tumor angiogenesis leading to relapse, on the molecular regulation of angiogenic growth factor PlGF, and the role of eosinophils in the pathology of endometriosis.

In her investigations of blood vessel growth in tumors, Dr. Taylor found that before treatment, cancers from the same anatomical location, e.g., colon cancer, produce similar levels of blood vessel growth-promoting factors. After treatment, the surviving tumor cells change their pattern of growth factor expression, stimulating growth of new blood vessels. However, increased production of the growth factors is not the same for all tumors. Cells from tumors most likely to grow back after treatment increase production of angiogenic factors more than tumors that are susceptible to treatment (5). In addition, the specific factors that are expressed dictate the manner in which the tumor vessels grow back. Tumors that are most resistant to treatment develop more new blood vessels earlier than the susceptible tumors.

Human eosinophils are white blood cells that can help eradicate certain kinds of infection. Dr. Taylor's investigation of human endometriosis, a condition that causes pain and infertility in women, indicated abnormal numbers of activated eosinophils in endometriosis tissue (4). The role of the infiltrating eosinophils is unclear at this time and will be the focus of further studies.

1. Murray HW, Cervia JS, Hariprashad J, Taylor AP, Stoeckle MY, Hochman H. Effect of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in experimental leishmaniasis. J. Clin. Invest. 95: 1183-1192 (1994).
2. Taylor AP, Murray HW. Intracellular antimicrobial activity in the absence of interferon-: effect of interleukin-12 in experimental visceral leishmaniasis in interferon- gene-disrupted mice. J. Exp. Med. 185: 1231-1239 (1997).
3. Taylor AP, Murray HW. Therapeutic effect of interferon-gamma gene transfer in experimental visceral leishmaniasis. J. Infect. Dis. 178: 908-911 (1998).
4. Blumenthal RD, Samoszuk M, Taylor AP, Brown G, Alisauskas R, Goldenberg DM. Degranulating eosinophils in human endometriosis. Am J Path 156: 1581-1588 (2000).
5. Taylor AP, Osorio L, Craig R, Ying Z, Goldenberg DM, Blumenthal RD. Tumor-specific regulation of angiogenic growth factors and their receptors during recovery from cytotoxic therapy. Clin Cancer Res 8: 1213-1222 (2002).