Professor Melcher graduated in medicine from the University of Oxford in 1989, and trained in Clinical Oncology (radiotherapy and chemotherapy) in Cardiff, London and Leeds. Following completion of his PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) in London, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, before returning to the UK, where he is currently Professor of Clinical Oncology and Biotherapy in Leeds. He combines a clinical practice in melanoma, with laboratory and translational research focused on oncolytic viruses and immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer.

KEY PAPERS

1) Qiao et al. Purging Metastases In Lymphoid Organs Using A Combination Of Antigen-Nonspecific Adoptive T Cell Therapy, Oncolytic Virotherapy And Immunotherapy. Nature Medicine. 2008; 14: 37-44.
2) Kottke et al. Broad Antigenic Coverage Induced By Vaccination With Virus-Based cDNA Libraries Cures Established Tumors. Nature Medicine, 2011; 17: 854-9.
3) Aldouri et al. Cell Carriage, Delivery And Selective Replication Of An Oncolytic Virus In Tumor In Patients. Science Translational Medicine, 2012; 4:138ra77.
4) Ilett et al. Cytokine Conditioning Enhances Systemic Delivery and Therapy of an Oncolytic Virus. Molecular Therapy. 2014; 22: 1851-63.
5) Rajani et al. Combination therapy with reovirus and anti-PD-1 blockade controls tumor growth through innate and adaptive immune responses. Molecular Therapy. 2015 [Epub ahead of print]