Neil Berinstein

Biography

Dr. Berinstein's lab develops molecular assays to monitor and prognosticate human lymphomas. Using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), his lab has developed highly sensitive and reproducible assays to detect minimal residual disease, and is applying them to monitor patients undergoing standard therapies and experimental therapies, including stem cell transplants. His lab has also developed real-time PCR-based assays to assess for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (known as SNPs) of immunologically relevant genes to determine whether enhanced prognostic models can be developed for patients undergoing routine or experimental cancer therapies. High-throughput assays using multi-colour dyes and high-resolution melting-point methods are being used and further developed. In addition, Dr. Berinstein has a longstanding interest in cancer immunotherapy and continues to develop novel vaccine and immunomodulator therapeutic approaches. He is working with biotechnology companies and cancer researchers to develop novel clinical strategies to augment anti-tumour immune responses to cancers. Specific research interests include using genomic information to develop personalized therapeutic vaccines for patients with cancer and developing combination immunotherapy treatment approaches.

Research Interest

Immunotherapy of cancer, Preclinical and clinical development of cancer vaccines and combination immunotherapies, Novel treatments and biomarkers for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.