Valentina Hoyos, M.D.

Associate Professor

Email

hoyos@bcm.edu

Positions

Associate Professor: Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center
Baylor College of Medicine

Education

MD from Javeriana University: 12/2006 - Bogota, Colombia

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine: 06/2009 - Houston, Texas, United States

Residency at Baylor College of Medicine/Internal Medicine/MeRIT scholar: 06/2014 - Houston, Texas, United States

Clinical Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University/Oncology: 06/2017 - Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Certifications

Board certified internal medicine: American Board of Internal Medicine

Board certified medical oncology: American Board of Internal Medicine

Professional Statement

I am a physician-scientist involved in research focused on improving cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. During my research training, I acquired the skills necessary to design viral vectors to genetically manipulate cells for the generation of novel cancer treatments. My clinical interests lie in treating patients with breast cancer, and my current research goal is to develop effective T cell therapies against new tumor specific targets and incorporate strategies to overcome the hostile breast tumor microenvironment. My long-term goal is to translate these therapies into the clinic to give breast cancer patients the opportunity to benefit from them.

Selected Publications

Nalawade SA, Shafer P, Bajgain P, McKenna MK, Ali A, Kelly L, Joubert J, Gottschalk S, Watanabe N, Leen A, Parihar R, Vera Valdes JF, Hoyos V.. " Selectively targeting myeloid-derived suppressor cells through TRAIL receptor 2 to enhance the efficacy of CAR T cell therapy for treatment of breast cancer " Journal for Immunotherapy of cancer. 2021 Nov 9; 11
Pubmed PMID: 34815355.
Shafer P, Leung WK, Woods M, Choi JM, Rodriguez-Plata CM, Maknojia A, Mosquera A, Somes LK, Joubert J, Manliguez A, Ranjan R, Burt B, Lee HS, Zhang B, Fuqua S, Rooney C, Leen AM, Hoyos V.. " Incongruity between T cell receptor recognition of breast cancer hotspot mutations ESR1 Y537S and D538G following exogenous peptide loading versus endogenous antigen processing. " Cytotherapy. 2024 Mar ; 26 (3) : 266-275.
Pubmed PMID: 38231165.
Savage SR, Yi X, Lei JT, Wen B, Zhao H, Liao Y, Jaehnig EJ, Somes LK, Shafer PW, Lee TD, Fu Z, Dou Y, Shi Z, Gao D, Hoyos V, Gao Q, Zhang B. " Pan-cancer proteogenomics expands the landscape of therapeutic targets. " Cell. 2024 Aug ; 187 (16) : 4389-4407.
Pubmed PMID: 38917788.
Chamorro DF, Somes LK, Hoyos V.. " Engineered Adoptive T-Cell Therapies for Breast Cancer: Current Progress, Challenges, and Potential. " Cancers. 2023 Dec ; 26 (16)
Pubmed PMID: 38201551.
Shafer P., Kelly LM, Hoyos V.. " Cancer Therapy With TCR-Engineered T Cells: Current Strategies, Challenges and Prospects " Frontiers in Immununology. 2022 Mar ;
Pubmed PMID: 35309357.
1. Quintarelli C., Dotti G., De Angelis B., Hoyos V., Mims M., Luciano L., Heslop HE., Rooney CM., Pane F., Savoldo B.. " Cytotoxic T lymphocytes directed to the Preferentially Expressed Antigen of Melanoma (PRAME) target chronic myeloid leukemia " Blood. 2008 ; 112(5) : 1876-85.
Pubmed PMID: 18591381.
Hoyos V, Savoldo B, Quintarelli C, Mahendravada A, Zhang M, Vera J, Heslop HE, Rooney CM, Brenner MK, Dotti G.. " Engineering CD19-specific T lymphocytes with interleukin-15 and a suicide gene to enhance their anti-lymphoma/leukemia effects and safety. " Leukemia. 2010 ; (24(6):1160-70)
Pubmed PMID: 20428207.
Vera JF, Hoyos V, Savoldo B, Quintarelli C, Giordano Attianese GM, Leen AM, Liu H, Foster AE, Heslop HE, Rooney CM, Brenner MK, Dotti G.. " Genetic Manipulation of Tumor-specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes to Restore Responsiveness to IL-7. " 2009 ; 17(5) : 880-8.
Pubmed PMID: 19259067.
Caruana I, Savoldo B, Hoyos V, Weber G, Liu H, Kim ES, Ittmann MM, Marchetti D, Dotti G.. " Heparanase promotes tumor infiltration and antitumor activity of CAR-redirected T lymphocytes. " Nature Medicine. 2015 ; 21 (5) : 524-9..
Pubmed PMID: 25849134.
Quintarelli C, Dotti G, Hasan ST, De Angelis B, Hoyos V, Errichiello S, Mims M, Luciano L, Shafer J, Leen AM, Heslop HE, Rooney CM, Pane F, Brenner MK, Savoldo B.. " High-avidity cytotoxic-T-lymphocytes specific for a new preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME)-derived peptide can target leukemic and leukemic-precursor cells. " Blood. 2011 ; (117(12):3353-62)
Pubmed PMID: 21278353.
Yvon E, Del Vecchio M, Savoldo B, Hoyos V, Dutour A, Anichini A, Dotti G, Brenner MK.. " Immunotherapy of metastatic melanoma using genetically engineered GD2-specific T cells. " Clinical cancer research. 2009 ; (15(18):5852-60)
Pubmed PMID: 19737958.
Yagyu S, Hoyos V, Del Bufalo F, Brenner MK. " Multiple mechanisms determine the sensitivity of human-induced pluripotent stem cells to the inducible caspase-9 safety switch. " Molecular Therapy. Methods and clinical development. 2016 ; 3 : 16003.
Pubmed PMID: 27626039.
Bajgain P, Tawinwung S, D'Elia L, Sukumaran S, Watanabe N, Hoyos V, Lulla P, Brenner MK, Leen AM, Vera JF.. " CAR T cell therapy for breast cancer: harnessing the tumor milieu to drive T cell activation " Journal for immunotherapy of cancer.. 2018 ; 6 (1) : 34.
Pubmed PMID: 29747685.
Geldres C, Savoldo B, Hoyos V, Caruana I, Zhang M, Yvon E, Del Vecchio M, Creighton CJ, Ittmann M, Ferrone S, Dotti G.. " T lymphocytes redirected against the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan-4 control the growth of multiple solid tumors both in vitro and in vivo. " Clinical cancer research. 2013 ; (20(4):962-71)
Pubmed PMID: 24334762.

Funding

CPRIT Scholar: (10/01/2017 - 10/01/2022); Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas

ESTROGEN RECEPTOR 1 MUTATION (ESR1M) SPECIFIC T CELLS FOR THE TREATMENT OF HORMONE RECEPTOR POSITIVE METASTATIC BREAST CANCER: (11/01/2019 - 11/01/2022); Grant funding from Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Grant

Languages

Spanish