IDIBELL Seminars: “Experiencia clínica en niños con tumores sólidos tratados con ICOVIR5”

About Manuel Ramírez

Dr. Manuel Ramírez received his MD and PhD degrees at Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, and did a residency in Pediatric Hematology & Oncology at Hospital Universitario Niño Jesús, Madrid. He trained as postdoct research fellow in Dr. Civin’s lab at Johns Hopkins (1994-1997), and worked as a researcher in Dr. Juan Bueren’s lab at CIEMAT (1998-2000). At the end of 2003 he moved into the Pediatric Hematology & Oncology Unit at Hospital Universitario Niño Jesús, where he has created a research group for developing new therapies for kids with cancers.

The main goal of his group is improving the outcome of children with cancer through translational research. The 2 major interests of Dr. Ramirez’s lab are on one hand, virotherapy for pediatric cancers. In collaboration with Dr. Ramón Alemany at ICO, they have designed a new strategy for delivering oncolytic adenoviruses into children with metastatic and refractory solid tumors, using autologous mesenchymal stem cells as vehicles. This strategy is safe and it may result in a complete clinical response. A phase I clinical trial has been approved by the Spanish Medicine Agency.  And on the other, the research of molecular targets in hematopoietic transplantation: they have reported a new role for NF-kB Inducing Kinase (NIK) during graft versus host disease (GHVD), suggesting that NIK may be a new target for GVHD therapy and/or prophylaxis.