James McNamara, Ph.D. (Associate Member)
Associate, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa

http://www.int-med.uiowa.edu/Divisions/Cardiology/Directory/JamesMcNamara.html

Research Interest    

The research interests of Dr. McNamara's laboratory include the development of RNA aptamer-based therapeutic approaches for the treatment of neurological disorders. RNA aptamers are synthetic, structural RNAs selected from combinatorial sequence libraries for the ability to bind a variety of molecules (including proteins) with affinities and specificities comparable to those of antibody/antigen interactions. As therapeutics, aptamers have a number of advantages over protein-based reagents, including their low immunogenicity, small size and chemical modifiability. Dr. McNamara's laboratory has previously utilized aptamers to deliver siRNAs to specific cell types and to stimulate the signaling capacity of cell surface receptors in proof-of-concept cancer therapeutics studies. The group is currently developing RNA aptamer-mediated therapeutic delivery strategies for the nervous system. These approaches have the potential for use in treating a variety of neurological disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases and pain disorders.

Selected Publications:

Dassie JP, Liu XY, Thomas GS, Whitaker RM, Thiel KW, Stockdale KR, Meyerholz DK, McCaffrey AP, McNamara JO 2nd, Giangrande PH (2009) Systemic administration of optimized aptamer-siRNA chimeras promotes regression of PSMA-expressing tumors. Nat Biotech., in press.

McNamara JO 2nd, Kolonias D, Pastor F, Mittler RS, Chen L, Giangrande PH, Sullenger BA, Gilboa E. (2008) Multivalent 4-1BB binding aptamers costimulate CD8+ T cells and inhibit tumor growth in mice. J Clin Invest. 118:376-386.

McNamara JO 2nd, Andrechek E, Wang Y, Viles KD, Rempel RE, Gilboa E, Sullenger BA, Giangrande PH (2006) Cell type-specific delivery of siRNAs with aptamer-siRNA chimeras. Nat Biotech. 24(8):1005-1015.

Grigston JC, VanDongen HM, McNamara JO 2nd, VanDongen AM. (2005) Translation of an integral membrane protein in distal dendrites of hippocampal neurons. Eur J Neurosci. 6:1457-68.

Publications from PubMed