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Faculty Detail    
Name GREGORY KANE FRIEDMAN
  
Campus Address ACC 512 Zip 0011
Phone  (205) 638-9285
E-mail  gkf@uab.edu
Other websites
     

Education
Undergraduate  College of William and Mary    1997  B.A. Kinesiology 
Medical School  Medical College of Georgia    2002  M.D. 
Residency  University of Alabama at Birmingham    2005  Pediatrics 
Fellowship  University of Alabama at Birmingham    2008  Pediatric Hematology and Oncology 

Certifications
General Pediatrics  2005 
Pediatric Hematology and Oncology  2009 


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Ped - Hematology/Oncology  Ped - Hematology/Oncology Professor Clinical

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American Association for Cancer Research  Member   
American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy  Member   
American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology   Member   
Children’s Oncology Group   Member   
Society for Neuro-Oncology   Member   
Society for Pediatric Research  Member   
 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Description
Dr. Friedman is a board certified Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist who specializes in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology and conducting pediatric brain tumor research as a Scientist in the Neuro-Oncology Program of the UAB O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. His overarching goal is to improve outcomes for children with malignant brain tumors by developing and improving novel, targeted immunotherapies like oncolytic engineered herpes simplex virotherapy (oHSV) in the lab and then translating these therapies to clinical trials. To maximize the benefit of oHSV to treat chemo- and radio-resistant pediatric brain tumors, his lab is focused on determining mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to oHSV by exploring the role of the tumor microenvironment and cellular defense mechanisms so that new viruses, unique routes of virus delivery, and combination therapies may be developed to circumvent resistance mechanisms. He is the Principal Investigator for the first pediatric trial of intratumoral oHSV alone or combined with radiation in children with recurrent/progressive malignant brain tumors (clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02457845) and for the first-in-human trial of oHSV in pediatric recurrent/progressive malignant tumors in the cerebellum (NCT03911388)

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Friedman GK, Castleberry RP. Changing trends of research and treatment in infant neuroblastoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2007; 49 S7:1060-1065.  17943963 
Friedman GK, Hammers Y, Reddy V, Pressey JG. Myelofibrosis in a patient with familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2008;50(6):1260-2.   18253962 
Friedman GK, Pressey JG, Reddy AT, Markert JM, Gillespie GY. Herpes simplex virus oncolytic therapies for pediatric malignancies. Mol Ther. 2009 Jul;17(7):1125-35.   19367259 
Friedman GK, Langford C, Coleman J, Cassady K, Parker J, Markert J, Gillespie GY. Engineered herpes simplex virus efficiently infects and kills CD133+ glioma cells that express CD111. J Neurooncol. 2009 Nov;95(2):199-209.   19521665 
Walsh A, Kelly DR, Vaid YN, Hilliard LM, Friedman GK. Complete response to carboplatin, gemcitabine and paclitaxel in a patient with advanced metastatic renal medullary carcinoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010 Dec 1;55(6):1217-20.   20979179 
Friedman GK, Gillespie GY. Cancer Stem Cells and Pediatric Solid Tumors. Cancers. 2011 Jan;3(1):298-318.   21394230 
Cook R, Berkow RL, Kelly DR, Friedman GK. Long-term complete response after treatment with cytarabine, vincristine, and prednisone in an Infant with refractory multisystem langerhans cell histiocytosis. Pediatric Blood Cancer. 2011 Jul 15;57(1):180-1.   21412968 
Walsh AM, Fiveash JB, Reddy AT, Friedman GK. Response to radiation in renal medullary carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature. Rare Tumors. 2011 3(3):e32.   22066039 
Pressey JG, Haas MC, Pressey CS, Kelly VM, Parker JN, Gillespie GY, Friedman GK. CD133 marks a myogenically primitive subpopulation in rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines that are relatively chemoresistant but sensitive to mutant HSV. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2013 60(1):45-52.   22408058 
Friedman GK, Cassady KA, Beierle EA, Markert JM, Gillespie GY. Targeting pediatric cancer stem cells with oncolytic virotherapy. Pediatr Res. 2012 Apr;71(4-2):500-510.   22430386 
Friedman GK, Haas MC, Kelly, VM, Markert JM, Gillespie, GY, Cassady KA. Hypoxia moderates gamma(1)34.5-deleted HSV oncolytic activity in human glioma xenoline primary cultures. Transl Oncol. 2012 Jun 5(3):200-207.   22741039 
Friedman GK, Spiller SE, Harrison K, Fiveash JB, Reddy AT. Treatment of children with glioblastoma with conformal radiation, temozolomide, and bevacizumab as adjuncts to surgical resection. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2013 Apr;35(3):e123-6.   23425999 
Friedman GK, Raborn J, Kelly VM, Cassady KA, Markert JM, Gillespie GY. Pediatric glioma stem cells: biologic strategies for oncolytic HSV virotherapy. Front Oncol. Epub 2013 Feb 28.   23450706 
Gillory LA, Megison ML, Stewart JE, Mroczek-Musulman E, Nabers HC, Waters AM, Kelly V, Coleman JM, Markert JM, Gillespie GY, Friedman GK, Beierle EA. Preclinical evaluation of engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus for the treatment of neuroblastoma. PLoS One. 2013 Oct 10;8(10):e77753. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077753. eCollection 2013.  24130898 
Megison ML, Gillory LA, Stewart JE, Nabers HC, Mroczek-Musulman E, Waters AM, Coleman JM, Kelly V, Markert JM, Gillespie GY, Friedman GK, Beierle EA. Preclinical evaluation of engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 30;9(1):e86843. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086843. eCollection 2014.  24497984 
Han X, Li R, Zhang W, Yang X, Wheeler CG, Friedman GK, Province P, Ding Q, You Z, Fathallah-Shaykh HM, Gillespie GY, Zhao X, King PH, Nabors LB. Expression of PRMT5 correlates with malignant grade in gliomas and plays a pivotal role in tumor growth in vitro.
J Neurooncol. 2014 May;118(1):61-72. doi: 10.1007/s11060-014-1419-0.  		 24664369 
Han X, Zhang W, Yang X, Wheeler CG, Langford CP, Wu L, Filippova N, Friedman GK, Ding Q, Fathallah-Shaykh HM, Gillespie GY, Nabors LB. The role of Src family kinases in growth and migration of glioma stem cells. Int J Oncol. 2014 Jul;45(1):302-10. doi: 10.3892/ijo.2014.2432.  24819299 
Smith TT, Roth JC, Friedman GK, Gillespie GY. Oncolytic viral therapy: targeting cancer stem cells. Oncolytic Virother. 2014 Feb;2014(3):21-33.  24834430 
Friedman GK, Nan L, Haas MC, Kelly VM, Moore BP, Langford CP, Xu H, Han X, Beierle EA, Markert JM, Cassady KA, Gillespie GY. Gamma134.5-deleted HSV-1-expressing human cytomegalovirus IRS1 gene kills human glioblastoma cells as efficiently as wild-type HSV-1 in normoxia or hypoxia. Gene Ther. 2014 Nov 27. doi: 10.1038/gt.2014.107.  25427614 
Friedman GK. Attack of the cancer-killing viruses: clinical application of oncolytic virotherapy in children. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2015 May;62(5):739-40. doi: 10.1002/pbc.25366.  25663349 
Bag AK, Kim H, Gao Y, Bolding M, Warren PP, Fathallah-Shaykh HM, Gurler D, Markert JM, Fiveash J, Beasley TM, Khawaja A, Friedman GK, Chapman PR, Nabors LB, Han X. Prolonged treatment with bevacizumab is associated with brain atrophy: a pilot study in patients with high-grade gliomas. J Neurooncol. 2015 May;122(3):585-93. doi: 10.1007/s11060-015-1751-z.  25711673 
Cohen C, King A, Lin CP, Friedman GK, Monroe K, Kutny M. Protocol for Reducing Time to Antibiotics in Pediatric Patients Presenting to an Emergency Department With Fever and Neutropenia: Efficacy and Barriers. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2015 Mar 27. [Epub ahead of print].   25822237 
Friedman GK, Moore BP, Nan L, Kelly VM, Etminan T, Langford CP, Xu H, Han X, Markert JM, Beierle EA, Gillespie GY. Pediatric medulloblastoma xenografts including molecular subgroup 3 and CD133+ and CD15+ cells are sensitive to killing by oncolytic herpes simplex viruses. Neuro Oncol. 2015 Jul 16. pii: nov123. [Epub ahead of print].  26188016 
Friedman GK, Beierle EA, Gillespie GY, Markert JM, Waters AM, Chen CY, Denton NL, Haworth KB, Hutzen B, Leddon JL, Streby KA, Wang PY, Cripe TP. Pediatric cancer gone viral. Part II: potential clinical application of oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 in children. Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2015;2. pii: 15016. Epub 2015 Sep 16.  26436134  
Cripe TP, Chen CY, Denton NL, Haworth KB, Hutzen B, Leddon JL, Streby KA, Wang PY, Markert JM, Waters AM, Gillespie GY, Beierle EA, Friedman GK. Pediatric cancer gone viral. Part I: strategies for utilizing oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 in children. Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2015;2. pii: 15015. Epub 2015 Sep 16.  26436135 
Waters AM, Friedman GK, Ring EK, Beierle EA. Oncolytic virotherapy for pediatric malignancies: future prospects. Oncolytic Virother. 2016;5:73-80.   27579298 
 

Keywords
pediatric neuro-oncology, immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy, gene therapy, engineered herpes simplex virus (HSV)