Email

dspencer@bcm.edu

Positions

Visiting Professor

Pathology & Immunology
Baylor College of Medicine

Education

Advanced Training from Stanford University School Of Medicine

01/1995 - Stanford, CA, United States

Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

01/1991 - Cambridge, MA, United States

B.A. from University Of California, San Diego

01/1984 - La Jolla, CA, United States

Professional Interests

• Prostate cancer progression
• Gene therapy
• CID
• Akt, fgf, caspase.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Narayanan P, Lapteva N, Seethammagari M, Levitt JM, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " A composite MyD88/CD40 switch synergistically activates mouse and human dendritic cells for enhanced antitumor efficacy. " J. Clin. Invest.. 2011 Apr 1; 121 (4) : 1524-34.
  Pubmed PMID: 21383499.
• Li B, Desai SA, MacCorkle-Chosnek RA, Fan L, Spencer DM. " A novel conditional Akt 'survival switch' reversibly protects cells from apoptosis. " Gene Ther.. 2002 Feb ; 9 (4) : 233-44.
  Pubmed PMID: 11896462.
• Chen M, Orozco A, Spencer DM, Wang J. " Activation of initiator caspases through a stable dimeric intermediate. " J. Biol. Chem.. 2002 Dec 27; 277 (52) : 50761-7.
  Pubmed PMID: 12399450.
• Kazansky AV, Spencer DM, Greenberg NM. " Activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 is required for progression of autochthonous prostate cancer: evidence from the transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate system. " Cancer Res.. 2003 Dec 15; 63 (24) : 8757-62.
  Pubmed PMID: 14695191.
• Shahi P, Park D, Pond AC, Seethammagari M, Chiou SH, Cho K, Carstens JL, Decker WK, McCrea PD, Ittmann MM, Rosen JM, Spencer DM. " Activation of Wnt Signaling by Chemically Induced Dimerization of LRP5 Disrupts Cellular Homeostasis. " PLoS ONE. 2012 ; 7 (1) : e30814.
  Pubmed PMID: 22303459.
• Straathof KC, Pulè MA, Yotnda P, Dotti G, Vanin EF, Brenner MK, Heslop HE, Spencer DM, Rooney CM. " An inducible caspase 9 safety switch for T-cell therapy. " Blood. 2005 Jun 1; 105 (11) : 4247-54.
  Pubmed PMID: 15728125.
• Xie X, Zhao X, Liu Y, Zhang J, Matusik RJ, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " Adenovirus-mediated tissue-targeted expression of a caspase-9-based artificial death switch for the treatment of prostate cancer. " Cancer Res.. 2001 Sep 15; 61 (18) : 6795-804.
  Pubmed PMID: 11559553.
• Shariat SF, Desai S, Song W, Khan T, Zhao J, Nguyen C, Foster BA, Greenberg N, Spencer DM, Slawin KM. " Adenovirus-mediated transfer of inducible caspases: a novel death switch" gene therapeutic approach to prostate cancer." " Cancer Res.. 2001 Mar 15; 61 (6) : 2562-71.
  Pubmed PMID: 11289132.
• Park D, Lapteva N, Seethammagari M, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " An essential role for Akt1 in dendritic cell function and tumor immunotherapy. " Nat. Biotechnol.. 2006 Dec ; 24 (12) : 1581-90.
  Pubmed PMID: 17143278.
• Pownall ME, Welm BE, Freeman KW, Spencer DM, Rosen JM, Isaacs HV. " An inducible system for the study of FGF signalling in early amphibian development. " Dev. Biol.. 2003 Apr 1; 256 (1) : 89-99.
  Pubmed PMID: 12654294.
• Danese S, Sans M, Spencer DM, Beck I, Doñate F, Plunkett ML, de la Motte C, Redline R, Shaw DE, Levine AD, Mazar AP, Fiocchi C. " Angiogenesis blockade as a new therapeutic approach to experimental colitis. " Gut. 2007 Jun ; 56 (6) : 855-62.
  Pubmed PMID: 17170016.
• Freeman KW, Gangula RD, Welm BE, Ozen M, Foster BA, Rosen JM, Ittmann M, Greenberg NM, Spencer DM. " Conditional activation of fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 1, but not FGFR2, in prostate cancer cells leads to increased osteopontin induction, extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation, and in vivo proliferation. " Cancer Res.. 2003 Oct 1; 63 (19) : 6237-43.
  Pubmed PMID: 14559809.
• Spencer DM. " Creating conditional mutations in mammals. " Trends Genet.. 1996 May ; 12 (5) : 181-7.
  Pubmed PMID: 8984733.
• Shariat SF, Kattan MW, Erdamar S, Nguyen C, Scardino PT, Spencer DM, Wheeler TM, Slawin KM. " Detection of clinically significant, occult prostate cancer metastases in lymph nodes using a splice variant-specific rt-PCR assay for human glandular kallikrein. " J. Clin. Oncol.. 2003 Apr 1; 21 (7) : 1223-31.
  Pubmed PMID: 12663708.
• Spencer DM. " Developments in suicide genes for preclinical and clinical applications. " Curr. Opin. Mol. Ther.. 2000 Aug ; 2 (4) : 433-40.
  Pubmed PMID: 11249774.
• Shah VR, Koster MI, Roop DR, Spencer DM, Wei L, Li Q, Schwartz RJ, Chang J. " Double-inducible gene activation system for caspase 3 and 9 in epidermis. " Genesis. 2007 Apr ; 45 (4) : 194-9.
  Pubmed PMID: 17417788.
• Spencer DM, Veldman GM, Banerjee S, Willis J, Levine AD. " Distinct inflammatory mechanisms mediate early versus late colitis in mice. " Gastroenterology. 2002 Jan ; 122 (1) : 94-105.
  Pubmed PMID: 11781285.
• Seethammagari MR, Xie X, Greenberg NM, Spencer DM. " EZC-prostate models offer high sensitivity and specificity for noninvasive imaging of prostate cancer progression and androgen receptor action. " Cancer Res.. 2006 Jun 15; 66 (12) : 6199-209.
  Pubmed PMID: 16778194.
• Lapteva N, Seethammagari MR, Hanks BA, Jiang J, Levitt JM, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " Enhanced activation of human dendritic cells by inducible CD40 and Toll-like receptor-4 ligation. " Cancer Res.. 2007 Nov 1; 67 (21) : 10528-37.
  Pubmed PMID: 17974997.
• Sonpavde G, Slawin KM, Spencer DM, Levitt JM. " Emerging vaccine therapy approaches for prostate cancer. " Rev Urol. 2010 ; 12 (1) : 25-34.
  Pubmed PMID: 20428291.
• Spencer DM, Belshaw PJ, Chen L, Ho SN, Randazzo F, Crabtree GR, Schreiber SL. " Functional analysis of Fas signaling in vivo using synthetic inducers of dimerization. " Curr. Biol.. 1996 Jul 1; 6 (7) : 839-47.
  Pubmed PMID: 8805308.
• Spencer DM. " Gene therapy 2001: Pandora's ecdysis. " Trends Genet.. 2001 Apr ; 17 (4) : 183-5.
  Pubmed PMID: 11357823.
• Fan L, Freeman KW, Khan T, Pham E, Spencer DM. " Improved artificial death switches based on caspases and FADD. " Hum. Gene Ther.. 1999 Sep 20; 10 (14) : 2273-85.
  Pubmed PMID: 10515447.
• Di Stasi A, Tey SK, Dotti G, Fujita Y, Kennedy-Nasser A, Martinez C, Straathof K, Liu E, Durett AG, Grilley B, Liu H, Cruz CR, Savoldo B, Gee AP, Schindler J, Krance RA, Heslop HE, Spencer DM, Rooney CM, Brenner MK. " Inducible apoptosis as a safety switch for adoptive cell therapy. " N. Engl. J. Med.. 2011 Nov 3; 365 (18) : 1673-83.
  Pubmed PMID: 22047558.
• Acevedo VD, Gangula RD, Freeman KW, Li R, Zhang Y, Wang F, Ayala GE, Peterson LE, Ittmann M, Spencer DM. " Inducible FGFR-1 activation leads to irreversible prostate adenocarcinoma and an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. " Cancer Cell. 2007 Dec ; 12 (6) : 559-71.
  Pubmed PMID: 18068632.
• Welm BE, Freeman KW, Chen M, Contreras A, Spencer DM, Rosen JM. " Inducible dimerization of FGFR1: development of a mouse model to analyze progressive transformation of the mammary gland. " J. Cell Biol.. 2002 May 13; 157 (4) : 703-14.
  Pubmed PMID: 12011115.
• Freeman KW, Welm BE, Gangula RD, Rosen JM, Ittmann M, Greenberg NM, Spencer DM. " Inducible prostate intraepithelial neoplasia with reversible hyperplasia in conditional FGFR1-expressing mice. " Cancer Res.. 2003 Dec 1; 63 (23) : 8256-63.
  Pubmed PMID: 14678983.
• Bins AD, van Rheenen J, Jalink K, Halstead JR, Divecha N, Spencer DM, Haanen JB, Schumacher TN. " Intravital imaging of fluorescent markers and FRET probes by DNA tattooing. " BMC Biotechnol.. 2007 ; 7 : 2.
  Pubmed PMID: 17201912.
• Dong Z, Zeitlin BD, Song W, Sun Q, Karl E, Spencer DM, Jain HV, Jackson T, Núñez G, Nör JE. " Level of endothelial cell apoptosis required for a significant decrease in microvessel density. " Exp. Cell Res.. 2007 Oct 1; 313 (16) : 3645-57.
  Pubmed PMID: 17720154.
• Grider MH, Park D, Spencer DM, Shine HD. " Lipid raft-targeted Akt promotes axonal branching and growth cone expansion via mTOR and Rac1, respectively. " J. Neurosci. Res.. 2009 Nov 1; 87 (14) : 3033-42.
  Pubmed PMID: 19530170.
• Valdez JM, Zhang L, Su Q, Dakhova O, Zhang Y, Shahi P, Spencer DM, Creighton CJ, Ittmann MM, Xin L. " Notch and TGFß Form a Reciprocal Positive Regulatory Loop that Suppresses Murine Prostate Basal Stem/Progenitor Cell Activity. " Cell Stem Cell. 2012 Nov 2; 11 (5) : 676-88.
  Pubmed PMID: 23122291.
• Kemnade JO, Seethammagari M, Narayanan P, Levitt JM, McCormick AA, Spencer DM. " Off-the-shelf Adenoviral-mediated Immunotherapy via Bicistronic Expression of Tumor Antigen and iMyD88/CD40 Adjuvant. " Mol. Ther.. 2012 Jul ; 20 (7) : 1462-71.
  Pubmed PMID: 22434138.
• Acevedo VD, Ittmann M, Spencer DM. " Paths of FGFR-driven tumorigenesis. " Cell Cycle. 2009 Feb 15; 8 (4) : 580-8.
  Pubmed PMID: 19182515.
• Wang J, Cai Y, Yu W, Ren C, Spencer DM, Ittmann M. " Pleiotropic biological activities of alternatively spliced TMPRSS2/ERG fusion gene transcripts. " Cancer Res.. 2008 Oct 15; 68 (20) : 8516-24.
  Pubmed PMID: 18922926.
• Shariat SF, Gottenger E, Nguyen C, Song W, Kattan MW, Andenoro J, Wheeler TM, Spencer DM, Slawin KM. " Preoperative blood reverse transcriptase-PCR assays for prostate-specific antigen and human glandular kallikrein for prediction of prostate cancer progression after radical prostatectomy. " Cancer Res.. 2002 Oct 15; 62 (20) : 5974-9.
  Pubmed PMID: 12384565.
• Rockey WM, Hernandez FJ, Huang SY, Cao S, Howell CA, Thomas GS, Liu XY, Lapteva N, Spencer DM, McNamara JO, Zou X, Chen SJ, Giangrande PH. " Rational truncation of an RNA aptamer to prostate-specific membrane antigen using computational structural modeling. " Nucleic Acid Ther. 2011 Oct ; 21 (5) : 299-314.
  Pubmed PMID: 22004414.
• Hanks BA, Jiang J, Singh RA, Song W, Barry M, Huls MH, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " Re-engineered CD40 receptor enables potent pharmacological activation of dendritic-cell cancer vaccines in vivo. " Nat. Med.. 2005 Feb ; 11 (2) : 130-7.
  Pubmed PMID: 15665830.
• Xie X, Zhao X, Liu Y, Young CY, Tindall DJ, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " Robust prostate-specific expression for targeted gene therapy based on the human kallikrein 2 promoter. " Hum. Gene Ther.. 2001 Mar 20; 12 (5) : 549-61.
  Pubmed PMID: 11268287.
• Straathof KC, Spencer DM, Sutton RE, Rooney CM. " Suicide genes as safety switches in T lymphocytes. " Cytotherapy. 2003 ; 5 (3) : 227-30.
  Pubmed PMID: 12850790.
• Zhou Z, Flesken-Nikitin A, Levine CG, Shmidt EN, Eng JP, Nikitina EY, Spencer DM, Nikitin AY. " Suppression of melanotroph carcinogenesis leads to accelerated progression of pituitary anterior lobe tumors and medullary thyroid carcinomas in Rb+/- mice. " Cancer Res.. 2005 Feb 1; 65 (3) : 787-96.
  Pubmed PMID: 15705875.
• MacCorkle RA, Freeman KW, Spencer DM. " Synthetic activation of caspases: artificial death switches. " Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. 1998 Mar 31; 95 (7) : 3655-60.
  Pubmed PMID: 9520421.
• Sun J, Dotti G, Huye LE, Foster AE, Savoldo B, Gramatges MM, Spencer DM, Rooney CM. " T Cells Expressing Constitutively Active Akt Resist Multiple Tumor-associated Inhibitory Mechanisms. " Mol. Ther.. 2010 Nov ; 18 (11) : 2006-17.
  Pubmed PMID: 20842106.
• Shaffer DR, Savoldo B, Yi Z, Chow KK, Kakarla S, Spencer DM, Dotti G, Wu MF, Liu H, Kenney S, Gottschalk S. " T cells redirected against CD70 for the immunotherapy of CD70-positive malignancies. " Blood. 2011 Apr 21; 117 (16) : 4304-14.
  Pubmed PMID: 21304103.
• Xie X, Guo J, Kong Y, Xie GX, Li L, Lv N, Xiao X, Tang J, Wang X, Liu P, Yang M, Xie Z, Wei W, Xie X. " Targeted expression of Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase and Fludara® for prostate cancer therapy. " J Gene Med. 2011 Dec ; 13 (12) : 680-91.
  Pubmed PMID: 22009763.
• Chiou SH, Shahi P, Wagner RT, Hu H, Lapteva N, Seethammagari M, Sun SC, Levitt JM, Spencer DM. " The E3 ligase c-Cbl regulates dendritic cell activation. " EMBO Rep.. 2011 ; 12 (9) : 971-9.
  Pubmed PMID: 21799517.
• Xie X, Luo Z, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " The EZC-prostate model: noninvasive prostate imaging in living mice. " Mol. Endocrinol.. 2004 Mar ; 18 (3) : 722-32.
  Pubmed PMID: 14684850.
• Nikitina EY, Desai SA, Zhao X, Song W, Luo AZ, Gangula RD, Slawin KM, Spencer DM. " Versatile prostate cancer treatment with inducible caspase and interleukin-12. " Cancer Res.. 2005 May 15; 65 (10) : 4309-19.
  Pubmed PMID: 15899823.
• Ramachandran IR, Song W, Lapteva N, Seethammagari M, Slawin KM, Spencer DM, Levitt JM. " The phosphatase SRC homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase-1 is an intrinsic central regulator of dendritic cell function. " J. Immunol.. 2011 Apr 1; 186 (7) : 3934-45.
  Pubmed PMID: 21357539.
• Sonpavde G, Spencer DM, Slawin KM. " Vaccine therapy for prostate cancer. " Urol. Oncol.. ; 25 (6) : 451-9.
  Pubmed PMID: 18047951.
• Shahi P, Seethammagari MR, Valdez JM, Xin L, Spencer DM. " Wnt and notch pathways have interrelated opposing roles on prostate progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation. " Stem Cells. 2011 Apr ; 29 (4) : 678-88.
  Pubmed PMID: 21308863.

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