Dr Christopher Siatskas, BSc (Hons), PhD

Multiple Sclerosis Research Group

Research Specialities

Hematopoietic stem cells, Gene therapy, Lentiviral vectors, T cell biology, Autoimmunity, Multiple sclerosis.

Project summary

Currently my research is focused on developing therapeutic applications for MS. To this end, I am implementing recombinant retroviral vectors to test whether genetic modification of a variety of antigen presenting cells with key target autoantigens can resynchronize the immune system leading to therapeutic outcomes. I am also using gene transfer technology to explore whether the in-situ delivery of a variety of cells expressing anti-inflammatory and/or neuroprotective molecules is beneficial for axonal regeneration and immune suppression.

Publications

Refereed journals

Siatskas, C., Payne, N. L., Short, M. A. and Bernard, C. C. (2010). A consensus statement addressing mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for multiple sclerosis: It's time! Stem Cell Rev. 6, 500-506.

Payne, N., Siatskas, C. Barnard, A. and Bernard, C. C. (2010). The prospect of stem cells as multi-faceted purveyors of immune modulation, repair and regeneration in Multiple Sclerosis. Curr Stem Cell Res Ther. Oct 18.

Ko, H .J. Chung, J. Y., Nasa, Z, Chan, J., Siatskas, C., Toh, B. H. and Alderuccio, F. (2010). Targeting MOG expression to dendritic cells delays onset of experimental autoimmune disease. Autoimmunity, Oct 1.

Ko, H. J., Kinkel, S. A., Hubert, F. X., Nasa, Z, Chan, J., Siatskas, C., Hirubalan, P., Toh, B. H., Scott, H. S. and Alderuccio, F. (2010). Transplantation of autoimmune regulatory-encoding bone marrow cells delays the onset of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Eur. J. Immunol. 40: 3499-3509.

McDonald, C., Siatskas, C. and Bernard, C.C. A. (2011). The emergence of amnion epithelial stem cells for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Inflammation and Regeneration 31: 256-271.

Symes, J. C., Siatskas, C., Fowler, D. H. Medin, J. A. (2009). Retrovirally transduced murine T lymphocytes expressing FasL mediate effective killing of prostate cancer cells. Cancer Gene Ther. 16: 439-452.

Siatskas, C. Bernard, C. C. (2009). Stem cell and gene therapeutic strategies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Curr. Mol. Med. In Press.

Payne, N., Siatskas, C., Bernard, C. C. (2008). The promise of stem cell and regenerative therapies for multiple sclerosis. J. Autoimmun. 31: 288-294.

Yoshimitsu, M., Higuchi, K., Ramsubir, S., Nonaka, T., Rasaiah, V. I., Siatskas, C., Liang, S. B, Murray, G. J., Brady, R. O. Medin, J. A. (2007). Efficient correction of Fabry mice and patient cells mediated by lentiviral transduction of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Gene Ther. 14: 256-265.

Thomson, C. W., Mossoba, M. E., Siatskas, C., Chen, W., Medin, J. A. Zhang, L. (2007). Lentivirally transduced recipient-derived dendritic cells serve to ex vivo expand functional FcR-sufficient double negative regulatory T cells. Mol. Ther. 15: 818-824.

Chan, J., Siatskas, C., Field, J., Toh, B. H. Alderuccio, F. (2006). Mechanisms and applications of stem cell gene therapy in autoimmunity. Drug Discovery Today: Disease Mechanisms. 3: 219-223.

Alderuccio, F. A., Siatskas, C., Chan, J., Field, J., Murphy, K., Nasa, Z. Toh, B. H. (2006). Haematopoietic stem cell gene therapy to treat autoimmune disease. Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy. 1: 231-238.

Ayach, B., Yoshimitsu, M., Dawood, F., Sun, M., Arab, S., Chen, M., Higuchi, K., Siatskas, C., Lee, P., Lim, H., Zhang, J., Cukerman, E., Stanford, W. L., Medin, J. A. Liu, P. P (2006). Stem Cell Factor Receptor Induces Progenitor and Natural Killer Cell Mediated Cardiac Survival and Repair Post-Myocardial Infarction. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. 103: 2304-2309.

Siatskas, C., Chan, J., Field, J., Murphy, K., Nasa, Z., Toh, B. H. Alderuccio, F. A (2006). Gene therapy strategies towards immune tolerance to treat the autoimmune diseases. Current Gene Therapy. 6: 45-58.

Lund, N., Branch, D. R., Sakac, D., Lingwood, C. A., Siatskas, C., Robinson, C. J., Brady, R. O. Medin, J. A. (2005). Lack of susceptibility of cells from patients with Fabry disease to productive infection with R5 human immunodeficiency virus. AIDS. 19: 1543-1546.

Siatskas, C., Underwood, J., Ramezani, A., Hawley, R. G. Medin, J. A. (2005). Specific pharmacological dimerization of KDR in lentivirally-transduced hematopoietic cells activates anti-apoptotic and proliferative mechanisms. FASEB. J. 19: 1752-1754.

Book chapters

Siatskas, C., Yoshimitsu, M. Medin. J. A. Transduction and Post-Translational Events in Gene Therapy Targeting Hematopoietic Stem Cells: Focus on Fabry Disease. Focus on stem cell research (editor Erik V. Greer). Chapter VII: pages 191-227. Copyright 2004 by Nova Biomedical Books. Hauppauge, New York USA.

Siatskas, C, Lowenthal, J. W. Obranovich, T. D. and Boyd, R. L. (1997). Avian cytokines. In:  Immunology Methods Manual. Academic press LTD, San Diego CA. USA, London, U.K. Ed. Ivan Lefkovits. 2255-2268.

Boyd, R. L. Siatskas, C. (1997).  Improvement of chicken disease resistance by haemopoietic cytokines.  In, Perspectives in Avian Endocrinology. Eds S. Harvey and R. J. Etches. 463-474.