About
Edward J Roy is an Affiliate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and an Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Neuroscience at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on developing immunotherapies for brain tumors, utilizing mice as experimental subjects due to the close parallels between murine and human immune systems. His work emphasizes T cell mediated immune responses, aiming to activate, direct, and control the immune response against tumors within the brain. Roy collaborates closely with the laboratory of David Kranz, a T cell biochemist, to advance understanding and effectiveness of immunotherapy strategies. His educational background includes a B.A. from Brown University, a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, and postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University. Roy's contributions include research on cytokine gene vaccine therapy for brain tumors, CAR-T cell treatments for ovarian cancer, and the use of small-molecule activators to eradicate human breast tumors in mice.
Research topics
- Internal medicine
- Medicine
- Cancer research
- Biology
- Oncology
- Molecular biology
- Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Endocrinology
- Immunology
Selected publications
Proceedings on CD-ROM - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition · 2025-09-16
articleMotivation: Monitoring of tumor progression and therapeutic efficacy will benefit from in vivo imaging technologies that can estimate cancer-cell-specific fractions at the tissue level. Goal(s): To continue developing an MRSI-based method to resolve tumor-cell-specific components within individual imaging voxels. Approach: We combined glioma-cell-specific metabolite profiles at different states and high-resolution MRSI data to resolve glioma cell fractions, validated using GFP-labeled glioma mice. Results: In vivo, in vitro, and ex vivo results demonstrated the effectiveness of our method in resolving tumor cell distribution and monitoring tumor progression. Impact: The proposed approach can assess cell-specific tissue responses, with significant potentials for tumor staging, treatment assessment, and recurrence detections.
Intravenous Ferric Carboxymaltose is Safe and Effective in Children with Heart Failure
The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation · 2025-04-01
articleOpen accessNMR in Biomedicine · 2024-05-08 · 2 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract Achieving high‐resolution and high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) in vivo metabolic imaging via fast magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) has been a longstanding challenge. This study combines the methods of relaxation enhancement (RE) and subspace imaging for the first time, enabling high‐resolution and high‐SNR in vivo MRSI of rodent brains at 9.4 T. Specifically, an RE‐based chemical shift imaging sequence, which combines a frequency‐selective pulse to excite only the metabolite frequencies with minimum perturbation of the water spins and a pair of adiabatic pulses to spatially localize the slice of interest, is designed and evaluated in vivo. This strategy effectively shortens the apparent T 1 of metabolites, thereby increasing the SNR during relatively short repetition time ( (T R ) compared with acquisitions with only spatially selective wideband excitations, and does not require water suppression. The SNR was further enhanced via a state‐of‐the‐art subspace reconstruction method. A novel subspace learning strategy tailored for 9.4 T and RE acquisitions is developed. In vivo, high‐resolution (e.g., voxel size of 0.6 × 0.6 × 1.5 mm 3 ) MRSI of both healthy mouse brains and a glioma‐bearing mouse brain in 12.5 min has been demonstrated.
Development of a Brain Tumor Vaccine
IntechOpen eBooks · 2024-01-17
book-chapterOpen accessSenior authorGlioma is a malignant brain tumor associated with a poor outcome. Attempts at surgical removal of the tumor are the first approach. Additional necessary treatment strategies including cranial irradiation and systemic or local chemotherapy each have serious side effects and provide relatively minimal survival benefits. Antigenic differences between normal and malignant cells of the cancer patient form the rationale for clinical immunotherapeutic strategies. Cytokines such as IL-15 or IL-2 that stimulate an antitumor immune response have been shown to have a particularly high potential for use in immunotherapy against various tumors. In this chapter studies with either a poxvirus genetically engineered to secrete IL-15 or allogeneic fibroblasts engineered to secrete IL-2 are shown to be an effective treatment strategy in prolonging survival in mice with malignant intracerebral tumors upon injection of the treatment cells into the brain. Future studies with these treatment strategies in patients with intracerebral tumors are urgently needed.
Cell-Specific Mapping of MR Spectroscopic Signatures: A Pilot Study in a Murine Glioma Model
Proceedings on CD-ROM - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition · 2024-11-26
articleMotivation: Effective monitoring of tumor progression and therapeutic efficacy should benefit from new in vivo imaging capability to resolve cell-specific contributions at tissue level. Goal(s): To develop a new MRSI-based approach to resolve tumor cell-specific components at individual imaging voxels leveraging the spectral dimensions. Approach: We proposed a multiscale experimental and computational MRSI framework that learns cell-specific spectroscopic signatures from glioma cell lines and resolves intravoxel nontumor and tumor-specific components in vivo using the learned signatures. Results: Results from cellular mixtures and glioma-bearing mice demonstrated the potential of our method. Time-dependent, spatially-resolved tumor cell maps can be obtained, showing tumor growth in vivo. Impact: The proposed approach marks a potential new paradigm to map cellular complexity at tissue level leveraging additional imaging dimensions and machine learning. It holds the promise to provide new tools for tumor grading, progression monitoring and treatment assessment.
Cancer Research · 2024-04-05
articleAbstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has been shown to effectively treat solid tumors in syngeneic murine models, but antigen loss and T cell trafficking into the tumors pose major obstacles to its long-term efficacy. Here we explored a combination therapy against advanced stages of colorectal and ovarian syngeneic murine tumor models using a tumor-specific small molecule (PAC-1) that triggers the engagement of the host immune system and synergizes with a Tn-specific adoptively transferred 237 CAR-T immunotherapy. PAC-1 has been shown to induce apoptosis in tumor cells with high expression of procaspase 3, via chelation of inhibitory zinc and release of active executioner caspase 3. PAC-1 also recently completed a phase I trial (NCT02355535) and was shown to be well-tolerated in late-stage cancer patients. RNA sequencing of CT26 colorectal cells stimulated with PAC-1 for 24 hours revealed that PAC-1 induced global changes at the transcriptome level, up-regulating genes involved in immune activation and apoptosis, and down-regulating genes involved in DNA repair, cell cycle regulation, and myc-driven proliferation. Validation of RNAseq data was performed using a combination of RT-qPCR, Western blot, flow cytometry, and co-culture studies. A combination of transcriptome and exome sequencing analyses in murine colorectal cell line CT26 revealed that the PAC-1-mediated down-regulation of DNA repair machinery led to somatic alterations in the genome and a higher mutational load in tumor cells, subsequently presented as neo-antigens by antigen-presenting cells. As a result, host CD8+ cytotoxic T cells were able to infiltrate tumors and reduce the tumor burden. Tn-dependent CARs have been used recently to demonstrate the proof of concept in the targeting of cancer-specific Tn-antigens such as the Tn-MUC1 antigen in humans, and an analogous Tn-OTS8 target in mice. In our murine ID8 ovarian tumor model, untreated mice with disseminated tumors have a median survival of 71 days. As a single agent administered intraperitoneally, PAC-1 extended the median survival to 90 days (p<0.0001), while 237 CAR-T treated mice have a median survival of 103 days (p<0.0001). A combination of the two treatment modalities (PAC-1 administered before 237 CAR-T) further extended the median survival to 145 days (p=0.048). Administering PAC-1 after 237 CAR-T also modestly extended the median survival to 132 days (p=0.06). Taken altogether, our results demonstrate that PAC-1 engages the immune system to treat cancer by inducing expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in tumor cells allowing the recruitment of CD8+ effector T cells to the tumor microenvironment. Combination strategies that boost T cell trafficking shows great promise to enhance the anti-tumor efficacy and feasibility of adoptive CAR-T therapy against solid tumors. Citation Format: Diana R. Ranoa, Yifei Kang, Jenny Drnevich, Gloria Rendon, Christopher J. Fields, Keith Bailey, Edward J. Roy, Timothy M. Fan, David M. Kranz, Paul J. Hergenrother. Small molecule procaspase activating compound 1 (PAC-1) enhances CAR-T immunotherapy for solid tumors in syngeneic murine models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(7_Suppl):Abstract nr LB075.
Data from Synergistic Combination of Oncolytic Virotherapy and Immunotherapy for Glioma
2023-03-31
preprintOpen accessSenior author<div>AbstractPurpose:<p>We hypothesized that the combination of a local stimulus for activating tumor-specific T cells and an anti-immunosuppressant would improve treatment of gliomas. Virally encoded IL15Rα-IL15 as the T-cell activating stimulus and a prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor as the anti-immunosuppressant were combined with adoptive transfer of tumor-specific T cells.</p>Experimental Design:<p>Two oncolytic poxviruses, vvDD vaccinia virus and myxoma virus, were each engineered to express the fusion protein IL15Rα-IL15 and a fluorescent protein. Viral gene expression (YFP or tdTomato Red) was confirmed in the murine glioma GL261 <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>. GL261 tumors in immunocompetent C57BL/6J mice were treated with vvDD-IL15Rα-YFP vaccinia virus or vMyx-IL15Rα-tdTr combined with other treatments, including vaccination with GARC-1 peptide (a neoantigen for GL261), rapamycin, celecoxib, and adoptive T-cell therapy.</p>Results:<p>vvDD-IL15Rα-YFP and vMyx-IL15Rα-tdTr each infected and killed GL261 cells <i>in vitro</i>. <i>In vivo</i>, NK cells and CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells were increased in the tumor due to the expression of IL15Rα-IL15. Each component of a combination treatment contributed to prolonging survival: an oncolytic virus, the IL15Rα-IL15 expressed by the virus, a source of T cells (whether by prevaccination or adoptive transfer), and prostaglandin inhibition all synergized to produce elimination of gliomas in a majority of mice. vvDD-IL15Rα-YFP occasionally caused ventriculitis-meningitis, but vMyx-IL15Rα-tdTr was safe and effective, causing a strong infiltration of tumor-specific T cells and eliminating gliomas in 83% of treated mice.</p>Conclusions:<p>IL15Rα-IL15–armed oncolytic poxviruses provide potent antitumor effects against brain tumors when combined with adoptive T-cell therapy, rapamycin, and celecoxib.</p></div>
2023-03-31
preprintOpen accessSenior author<p>IHC, survival curve, celecoxib, H&E</p>
2023-03-31
preprintOpen accessSenior author<p>IHC, survival curve, celecoxib, H&E</p>
Cytokine Gene Vaccine Therapy for Treatment of a Brain Tumor
Brain Sciences · 2023-10-25 · 5 citations
reviewOpen accessSenior authorA glioma is a malignant brain tumor with a poor prognosis. Attempts at the surgical removal of the tumor are the first approach, but additional treatment strategies, including radiation therapy and systemic or local chemotherapy, are necessary. Furthermore, the treatments are often associated with significant adverse side effects. Normal and malignant cells generally have antigenic differences, and this is the rationale for clinical immunotherapeutic strategies. Cytokines such as IL-15 or IL-2, which stimulate an anti-tumor immune response, have been shown to have a particularly high potential for use in immunotherapy against various tumors. In this review, treatments with either a poxvirus, genetically engineered to secrete IL-15, or allogeneic fibroblasts, transfected with tumor DNA and engineered to secrete IL-2, are shown to be effective strategies in extending the survival of mice with malignant brain tumors upon intracerebral injection of the treatment cells. Future studies with these treatment strategies in patients with intracerebral tumors are urgently needed.
Recent grants
NIH · $772k · 2004
NIH · $99k · 1987
NIH · $58k · 1989
NIH · $335k · 2007
Frequent coauthors
- 36 shared
David M. Kranz
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 18 shared
Grant McFadden
Arizona State University
- 18 shared
Jia Liu
Changchun Normal University
- 14 shared
Bingtao Tang
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 13 shared
Joanna L. Shisler
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 13 shared
Claire P. Schane
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 12 shared
Bhabani Sankar Satapathy
Siksha O Anusandhan University
- 12 shared
Diana Thomas
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Education
- 1976
PhD
University of Massachusetts Amherst
- 1970
BA
Brown University
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