Compositions and methods for detecting a cancer in a subject using a recombinant reporter adenovirus are described. In particular, recombinant adenovirus is used to diagnose a cancer in a patient and further used for screening compounds effective in treating the cancer in said patient.

Recombinant vectors in which expression of one or more elements (e.g. gene required for viral replication, detectable imaging agents, therapeutic agents, etc.) is driven by an mda-9/syntenin (mda-9) cancer selective promoter are provided, as are cells and transgenic animals that contain such vectors. The vectors are used in cancer therapy and/or diagnostics, especially to visualize (image) and treat metastasis (including in rapid in vitro assays), and the transgenic mice are used to monitor cancer progression and/or the efficacy of candidate therapeutic agents in screening assays.

The present invention relates to variant AAV capsid polypeptides, wherein the variant AAV capsid polypeptides exhibit increased transduction and/or tropism in human muscle tissue or cells as compared non-variant parent capsid polypeptides.

Recombinant adenovirus genomes that include a heterologous open reading frame (ORF) and a self-cleaving peptide coding sequence are described. The recombinant adenovirus genomes and recombinant adenoviruses produced by the disclosed genomes can be used, for example, in high-throughput assays to measure virus replication kinetics. Methods for measuring replication kinetics of a recombinant adenovirus are also described.