We have compiled and evaluated all published information on clinical trials with DC worldwide. Questionnaires to all authors concerning follow-up of their published patients are about to be sent out. This database will be made available for all DC-THERA participants and will serve as a basis for a critical report on the role of DC based immunotherapy in cancer 2009.

We have experience in querying DAVID, the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/) . For instance, we used DAVID for functional annotation of upregulated and downregulated genes by gene ontology classification and pathway analysis by several bioinformatics approaches. Preliminary results obtained from querying DAVID and Ontologizer (http://www.charite.de/ch/medgen/ontologizer/) show statistically significant enrichment for immunological-relevant signaling pathways and immunology-related GO terms of the upregula...

We have been developing the DC-ATLAS DC-pathway database. For this, we have set about identifying key signalling pathways that were likely to be of most relevance to dendritic cell functions. We have designed a DC-ATLAS data model to effectively describe pathways, their genes, and their interaction. We produced a controlled vocabulary that contains at least 400 ontological terms, prepared on the basis of the proposals and discussions among the researchers involved in DC-ATLAS project. We defined the pathway representation where each pathway was described using three ...

The experiments on human monocyte-derived DC are being annotated in DC-BASE, a unique DC-dedicated database integrated with data mining tools. The database uses a LIMS system based on the structure of Base2.9. The database currently contains 240 microarray experiments annotated accordingly to MIAME standards and thoroughly analyzed in order to pass severe quality control tests. A meeting will be organized for defining policies on data sharing within the DC-THERA community and beyond. In order to populate DC-BASE with data obtained from the literature, we used the ...

This bioassay is a list of standardized procedures, which enables to use the dendritic cells as tools for the determination of the effects of new chemical compounds on dendritic cell capacity to produce type I IFNs. The selected molecules could be potential new vaccine adjuvants.

DC-PathEdit is a software based on PathVisio (http://www.pathvisio.org) created for the graphical representation of the pathways and for the establishment of annotations and other properties. It is used as an intermediate step towards the creation of a complete data model of the DC-ATLAS pathways, as it can represent them graphically and also annotate them using a controlled vocabulary.

DC-STUDIO is a bioinformatics environment enabling the interrogation of DC genomics experiments according to a pathway-based logic. It is integrated with DC-BASE.

In the DC-THERA effort to create new dendritic cell-based therapies, a wide range of information arising from genomics, proteomics, molecular cell biology and pre-clinical models is gathered and applied to the conduction of clinical trials. The DC-THERA Directory is intended to collect and semantically organize this data and to serve as a tool for collaboration among researchers and as a reference point for the information contained. As such it is a directory that provides summarized information and relations between resources and people involved. In particular, we ...

These bioassays were designed taking advantage of some results obtained by performing global gene expression analyses. We have optimised a DC-based assay aimed at identifying new adjuvant molecules potentially capable to induce Th1 responses. This bioassay is a list of standardized procedures, which enables to use the dendritic cells as tools for the determination of the effects of new chemical compounds on dendritic cell capacity to produce type I IFNs.

We have used the electron microscope that is available to our lab, e.g., to document the production and secretion of tubulovesicular structures by cells overexpressing VSV-G glycoprotein and for documentation of production and secretion of tubulovesicular structures.

Our laboratory has an electroporator at its disposal. It is used for instance for RNA electroporation into DC.

We use the electroporator at our disposal, for instance, to electroporate dendritic cells with melanoma antigen RNA .

Our laboratory has an electroporator at its disposal. It was used, e.g., for an assessment whether functional activation of human monocyte-derived DCs can be achieved by electroporation of an activation signal in the form of double-stranded (ds) RNA and whether simultaneous electroporation of the dsRNA with tumor antigen encoding mRNA can lead to the induction of a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response.

We have expertise in performing ELISA assays. For instance, we use the ELISA kit for IL-12 and IL-10 from Biosource to evaluate cytokine accumulation in supernatants at 24h, according to a standard protocol and it was measured at 450n

An ELISA assay using the kit from Biosource was performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions for the measurement of different cytokines.

Our lab has expertise in performing ELISA assays. For example, we have monitored vaccine induced T cell responses for two clinical trials. We found CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses against the immunological tracers KLH and TK, and against the NTPs and MAGE-3, respectively.

We have experience with ELISA for IL-12p70 from R&D System.

We have experience with ELISA assay for IL-17 from e-Bioscience.

We have experience about using Elispot assays for monitoring vaccine induced specific anti-tumor T cell responses.

Our lab has expertise about ELISPOT analyses from the long peptide trial in end stage cervical carnoma, resected cervical carcinoma and VIN III patients.