University of Texas at Dallas researchers have developed a potential gene therapy to “pre-treat” neuroblastoma tumors in order to make chemotherapy more effective. Neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer that forms in immature nerve cells, has a 50% five-year survival rate for patients with high-risk tumors. Researchers discovered that the gene therapy also made the tumor cells more receptive to chemotherapy. They discovered that, in addition to increasing blood flow to tumors, the gene therapy caused iNOS expression in the tumor cells, making the chemotherapy more effective. “This is something that, as an engineer constructing these molecules in a lab, I probably wouldn’t have been thinking about before.”One of Sirsi’s goals was to use a nonviral vector, or delivery method, for gene therapy.