John Ohlfest, Ph.D.
Dr. Ohlfest studied molecular biology Iowa State University and received his B.S. in 2001. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 2004 working on gene therapy approaches to treating malignant gliomas. He joined the faculty of the department of neurosurgery in 2005 and leads their gene therapy program.
Current focus
“The focus of our research is harnessing the precision of the immune system to treat brain tumors. We know that brain tumor cells can be killed by the immune response, but in most children this process is inadequate, the immune response needs help. We are developing new approaches to increase the number of tumoricidal immune cells and sustain them for longer periods of time to fight brain tumors. By combining immunotherapy with other therapeutic advances, such as novel small molecule drugs, we are getting progressively closer to achieving our goal of a world free of brain tumors.”
Committed to finding a cure
“I knew from the time I entered graduate school that I wanted to dedicate my career to developing tumor-specific brain cancer therapy. Once I learned that brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-associated death in people under the age of 35, it was clear that childhood cancer was the battleground I would bring my war against cancer to.”
Children's Cancer Research Fund: Making a difference
“We know that incremental thinking will led to incremental progress. Children’s Cancer Research Fund has provided the crucial funding to get our wildest, highest-risk ideas to the proof-of-concept stage. Children's Cancer Research Fund allows me to think outside of the box, to hit brain cancer as hard as I possibly can every day; and, if I fail, to learn from it and come back smarter the next time.”