Josep Dalmau, MD, PhD

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				Josep Dalmau, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor, Division of Neuro-oncology 409 Johnson Pavilion (215) 746-4707 , Fax (215) 746-4717 email: jdalmau@mail.med.upenn.edu For more information: http://pennhealth.com/neuro/services/neuro_onc/ Click here for selected publications since Dr. Dalmau's arrival at Penn RESEARCH INTERESTS Cancer induced neuroimmunological disorders, called paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. RESEARCH TECHNIQUES Immunohistochemistry, immunoblot, immunoprecipitation, general molecular biology including PCR, RT-PCR, Southern and Northern blotting, serologic screening phage expression libraries. RESEARCH SUMMARY Paraneoplastic neurologic disorders are caused by cancer-induced immunologic mechanisms. These disorders can affect any part of the central and peripheral nervous system. As a result of these immune responses, patients develop severe neurologic symptoms, including seizures, memory problems, hypothalamic dysfunction, and paralysis or sensory deficits that usually precede the diagnosis of the cancer. The current concept is that the expression of neuronal proteins by the cancer triggers an immune response against the tumor that is misdirected against the nervous system, resulting in the paraneoplastic disorder. This immune response is characterized by high titer of serum antibodies (often accompanied by cytotoxic T-cell responses) that specifically react with proteins exclusively expressed by neurons and the cancer cells (onconeuronal antigens). Detection of these serum antibodies allows the diagnosis of the neurologic disorder as paraneoplastic, saving the patient from extensive and sometimes invasive tests, and directs the search of the tumor to a few organs, depending of the type of antibody. Studies have resulted in the clinical characterization of several paraneoplastic disorders, and in discovery of a number of antibodies and target antigens, which are currently used as diagnostic tests for these syndromes. Paraneoplastic neurologic disorders are also important because they are natural models of effective anti-tumor immunity. The cancers of patients with some paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes are usually small and often escape detection by standard tests. We have demonstrated that the paraneoplastic immune response contributes to the less aggressive behavior of cancers associated to paraneoplastic syndromes. Current projects are directed to model the anti-tumor immune response in animals in order to develop novel strategies for cancer therapy.