Michael Mcgrath, MD, PhD
The overall goal of our research program has been to understand the role macrophages play in the pathogenesis of cancer and neuroinflammatory diseases. A significant amount of effort has gone into the study of both AIDS related malignancies and AIDS dementia. The malignancy research evolved into the establishment of a global resouce for researchers in the AIDS malgnancy field, the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR). The dementia program has driven the drug develpoment effort targeting pathogenic macrophages to the point where a lead drug candidate was developed by us and has been through advanced clinical testing in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We believe that controlled regulation of macrophage activation should be useful in a variety of clinical settings once the value has been tested in patients with ALS.