Laboratory Research Objectives

The McIntosh Laboratory develops and applies computational proteomic strategies primarily for discovering and evaluating serum diagnostic and early detection biomarkers, especially for ovarian cancer.

Selected Funded Projects in the Lab

Identifying autoantibody biomarkers derived from cancer-specific splicing and validating them in pre-clinical and occult ovarian cancer plasma samples (PI: McIntosh): This Department of Defense funded project mines mRNA-seq data to identify ovarian cancer selective transcripts, and perform stimulated ELISPOT assays using PBMCs from those transcripts to determine whether proteins contain epitopes recognized by their CD8+ T Cells.

Predicting HIV-Associated Kaposi Sarcoma with Proteins and Autoantibodies (PI: McIntosh): This NIH-funded project aims to identify blood protein biomarkers that can detect individuals who are at imminent risk for developing KS in HIV+/HHV-8+ populations.

Biomarker validation for ovarian early detection markers. Pacific Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium (POCRC) (Project lead McIntosh, PI: Urban): This research represents the early detection project on the FHCRC Ovarian Cancer SPORE, an NCI-funded translational research program. This project intends to confirm individual analytes of interest for ovarian cancer molecular diagnostics.

Selected Collaborative Projects

Breast and Ovary Cancer Clinical Validation Center (PI: Li): This project validates candidate breast and ovary cancer early detection biomarkers in a series of Phase 3 validation studies.

Early diagnosis of clear cell kidney cancer via VHL/HIF pathway-regulated circulating microRNA (PI: Tewari):  The objective of this research is to identify a panel of miRNAs that are measurable in serum and that will be able to diagnose kidney cancer early. This research produces a microRNA-based diagnostic test for the pre-operative diagnosis of kidney masses, and it sets the foundation for developing the test further for early detection of clear cell renal carcinoma in the population screening setting.