Nicola Mason
ESVP-ECVP Congress
nmason@vet.upenn.edu
,
Nicola Mason is a Professor in the Department of Pathobiology and holds the James & Gilmore Endowed Chair Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She received her veterinary degree from the Royal Veterinary College, London and her Immunology PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She performed her post-doctoral fellowship in cancer immunotherapy with Carl June at the Abramson Cancer Center at the School of Medicine at Penn.
Dr. Mason’s translational research group focuses on a comparative approach to accelerate the clinical implementation of effective immunotherapies – including engineered T and iNKT cells – and antibody-targeted therapeutics for both human and canine patients with cancer and autoimmunity. Innovative clinical trials in pet dogs with spontaneous tumors including osteosarcoma and B cell lymphoma, provide important safety and early efficacy data for human clinical trial design. Clinical studies in canine cancer patients can also inform clinical trial regimens and offer insight into correlative biomarkers of clinical response.
Dr. Mason leads the NIH/NCI supported pre-medical cancer immunotherapy network for canine trials (PRECINCT). Through innovation and collaboration, the network supports and accelerates immunotherapy research in canine cancer patients through NIH/NCI funded clinical trials. Dr. Mason’s research using adoptive cell therapies is funded through federal and private foundation grants. Her pioneering work with a live, recombinant Listeria vaccine in dogs with osteosarcoma earned her the One Health Award for Excellence in promoting One Health Initiatives. A clinical trial evaluating this recombinant vaccine in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory osteosarcoma is currently enrolling. Current studies in the Mason lab include evaluation of genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) iNKT cells as an off-the shelf platform for canine patients with solid tumors and autologous, armored CAR-T cells for canine patients with B cell lymphoma.
