Holger Lode (born 14 April 1967) is a German specialist for pediatrics. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of General Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the University Medicine Greifswald. He is also the director of the Center of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Greifswald.Center of Paediatrics and Youth Medicine, University Greifswald Lode is well known for his clinical and scientific work on immunotherapy of neuroblastoma.
Biography and scientific contribution Lode completed his undergraduate training in medicine at the University of Tübingen in 1992 and received his M.D. summa cum laude in 1993. He was awarded a research fellowship of the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” in 1996, which he used for postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA in the area of tumor immunology. In 1999 he became a junior faculty member at Scripps, where he developed a tumor model to study immunotherapeutic approaches in a deadly malignancy in childhood called neuroblastoma.Lode HN, Xiang R, Varki NM, Dolman CS, Gillies SD, Reisfeld RA. Targeted interleukin-2 therapy for spontaneous neuroblastoma metastases to bone marrow. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1997;89:1586-94.Lode HN, Xiang R, Dreier T, Varki NM, Gillies SD, Reisfeld RA. Natural killer cell-mediated eradication of neuroblastoma metastases to bone marrow by targeted interleukin-2 therapy. Blood 1998;91:1706-15. He demonstrated that treatment with immunocytokines, which are antibody-cytokine fusion proteins, is effective in this model and that this approach is synergistic with inhibition of angiogenesisLode HN, Moehler T, Xiang R, et al. Synergy between an antiangiogenic integrin alphav antagonist and an antibody-cytokine fusion protein eradicates spontaneous tumor metastases. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1999;96:1591-6. as well as tumor vaccines.Lode HN, Xiang R, Duncan SR, et al. Tumor-targeted IL-2 amplifies T cell-mediated immune response induced by gene therapy with single-chain IL-12. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1999;96:8591-6.Lode HN, Xiang R, Pertl U, et al. Melanoma immunotherapy by targeted IL-2 depends on CD4(+) T-cell help mediated by CD40/CD40L interaction [In Process Citation]. J Clin Invest 2000;105:1623-30. This seminal discovery was translated to clinical application and is subject to ongoing clinical trials (PM Sondel). In 2000 he continued training in Pediatrics at the Charité, University Medicine Berlin. At the same time he was awarded an “Emmy-Noether” Fellowship by the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” with focus on immunotherapy approaches in neuroblastoma. In this time period, he developed novel approaches by means of genetic vaccination to treat malignant disease.Fest S, Huebener N, Bleeke M, et al. Survivin minigene DNA vaccination is effective against neuroblastoma. Int J Cancer 2009;125:104-14. In particular combinations of DNA vaccines with tumor specific delivery of immunocytokine lead to important step forward to optimize efficacy of DNA vaccination.Pertl U, Wodrich H, Ruehlmann JM, Gillies SD, Lode HN, Reisfeld RA. Immunotherapy with a posttranscriptionally modified DNA vaccine induces complete protection against metastatic neuroblastoma. Blood 2003;101:649-54. In 2002 he became a member of the SIOPEN groupSIOPEN executive members and got involved in the clinical development of a monoclonal antibody directed against ganglioside GD2 (ch14.18/CHO).Prof. Holger Lode at the NCCA UK Parent Conference 2014Zeng Y, Fest S, Kunert R, et al. Anti-neuroblastoma effect of ch14.18 antibody produced in CHO cells is mediated by NK-cells in mice. Mol Immunol 2005;42:1311-9. He investigated for the first time a novel delivery method of this antibody (patent)Patents by Inventor Holger Lode and he is currently leading two international clinical trials with this antibody.Long Term Continuous Infusion ch14.18/CHO Plus s.c. Aldesleukin (IL-2) (LTI)
Awards 2005 Science4life, Venture Cup
Memberships in scientific organizations Lode is member of numerous German, European and American scientific organizations like the German Society for Children and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ), the German Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (GPOH), the International Society for Pediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma (SIOPEN), the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Since 2013 he is member of the SIOP Scientific Programme Advisory Committee (SPAC) of the International Society for Pediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma (SIOP),SPAC Members SIOP chair of the Immunotherapy Committee and member of the executive Board of SIOPEN. Furthermore, Lode is contributing his expertise as a reviewer in the following scientific journals: The Journal of Immunology, Blood, Cancer Research, Cancer Gene Therapy, Clinical Cancer Research, Oncogene.
Publications List of publications on research gate
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