TEAM PROFILES
Carol A. Kruse, Ph.D - Senior Investigator & Director, Joan S. Holmes Memorial Brain Tumor Biotherapeutics Research Lab Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute (La Jolla, CA)
Dr. Carol Kruse and her lab focus on translational (clinical) studies using immune cell therapy and gene therapy for primary malignant brain tumors. Her research has resulted in three clinical trials for immune therapies in addition to the current Phase I trial. Her laboratory develops and characterizes immune implants, vaccines, and nanoparticles to treat brain cancers in this and other clinical trials. Dr. Kruse graduated from Colorado State University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Microbiology before pursuing her Ph.D. at UCLA in a joint departmental study within Microbiology and Biological Chemistry. After finishing her Ph.D. she obtained a postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in Pasadena, California. In 1983 she moved to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and began pilot studies using immune therapies developed in her laboratory on recurrent primary brain cancer patients. Three of six patients in this study are long-term cancer survivors. She moved to California in 2004 and is working on validating the results of her 1996 pilot study in a Phase I clinical trial with UCLA.Neurosurgery. Her new studies explore immune therapies use at the initial diagnosis of brain cancer, on metastatic tumors to the brain, and on pediatric brain tumors.
Linda Liau MD, Ph.D. - Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Dr. Linda M. Liau is a neurosurgeon and Professor of Neurosurgery at the UCLA School of Medicine. She is Director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program and Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Liau received her B.S. degree in Biochemistry and a B.A. in Political Science, both with honors from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1987. She then received her M.D. degree from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California in 1991, and a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Neuroscience from UCLA in Los Angeles, California in 1999.
Emma Young, Research Nurse
Emma Young is a Research Nurse for the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. degree from UCLA in 2004 and is pursuing an M.S. in Nursing from CSULA. She received a Neurosurgery staff nomination in 2006 and in 2007 she was honored to receive the Department of Neurosurgery staff recognition award. Emma’s ongoing compassion and commitment demonstrates her strive for excellence in patient care.
