Grant: Project Grant

Reovirus is a harmless virus, it spreads among humans and some animals through the intestine without causing disease. Reovirus has also been demonstrated to help treat tumors in animal models and is being tested in clinical human trials as a cancer therapy by a Canadian company. My laboratory identified new mutations that promote the cancer-killing (oncolytic) activity of reovirus. This project will understand how the mutations promote reovirus oncolysis, and how they affect reovirus' natural infection in the intestine. We predict that the mutations help reovirus assemble (make new virus that can spread) among tumors but do not help the virus in the intestine. Through our research, we will also better understand how reovirus regulates its assembly and this will help us understand viruses in general. Ultimately we hope to improve reovirus as a cancer therapy by combining mutations that are beneficial in the tumor but not in the intestine.