One of the reasons cancer is so successful and difficult to treat is that it uses the body's own systems to proliferate, thrive, and hide from attack. Bioresearch scientists out to target cancer are taking a similar approach, building tiny bio-vehicles for locating tumors that reach their destination without setting off a massive immune system alarm or flooding the whole body with toxic chemicals. A team of biochemists at the University of California San Diego led by Dr. Nathan Gianneschi has developed a nanoparticle that assumes a benign shape to travel covertly through the blood system, then, recognizing a tumor, reassembles via an enzymatic cue into a net to attach itself to the cancerous target.
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Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Diego, 2013, Nanobiotechnology, cancer research, Southwest, California, University of California, San Diego, SDVS, BioResearch Product Faire Event, UCSD, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase
At Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers have announced the results of an important study showing that high levels of estrogen in the mother during pregnancy can increase a daughter's susceptibility to breast cancer later on. Specifically, the BRCA1 gene is disabled in an estrogen-rich environment, preventing it from carrying out its DNA repair tasks and leaving an opening for cancerous cells to grow. The research was presented at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting by Dr. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke (right). The Hilakivi-Clarke Lab is on the same floor of the Research Building as that of Dr. Robert Clarke, who collaborated on the study; the Clarkes both carry out hormone-related cancer research, and Robert Clarke is the Dean for Research at the Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).
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Tags: 2014, 2013, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Northeast, gene patenting, cancer research, D.C., Geotwn, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Genetics, Georgetown University Medical Center
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington Medicine in Seattle are pleased to announce the arrival soon of Dr. Eric Holland, a world-class brain cancer research scientist and neurosurgeon, who will head up the Human Biology Division at Hutch as well as the Alvord Brain Tumor Center at UW. The eminent MD/PhD is being lured away from Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he directs the MSKCC brain tumor center and has his lab within the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, where his team studies the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of central nervous system tumors. In addition to being the recipient of many prestigious awards over years, Holland brings with him over $3M a year in NIH/NCI funding. It's unclear how many of his 13 lab members will follow him across the country to take on new challenges at Hutch and UW.
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Tags: 2014, 2013, Northeast, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Washington, UW, University of Washington, WA, Northwest, cancer research, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, brain research, Neuroscience, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Front Line event, Seattle, Frontline Event, Hutch, Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center cell engineering researchers and their clinician colleagues have been in the news recently for a successful experimental cell therapy. Called targeted immunotherapy, a patient's T cells are genetically altered in the lab, then reintroduced with the directive to target and kill cancer cells. The treatment was carried out on a group of adults who all suffered from a rapidly progressing form of leukemia that had not responded to chemotherapy. All five went into remission after the novel cell treatment, and three have stayed that way for a number of months. Results of the ongoing clinical trial appeared in the March 20 online edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine, along with an article in the New York Times.
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Tags: 2014, Rockefeller University, 2013, Northeast, Leukemia, immunotherapy, cancer research, New York, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cancer Treatment, Immune System, Cell Research, RockU, BioResearch Product Faire Event, NY, New York City, MSKCC
Lab scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UP's Center for Biologic Imaging have recently published an important paper in the Journal of Cell Science that sheds light on a novel method of interrupting mitosis in a cell by effectively depriving its mitochondria of a key protein. The resulting replication stress means cancer cells are stopped from successfully multiplying. Colorful images of the targeted cells actually show them stuck in anaphase trying to divide and subsequently tearing themselves apart. By identifying a compound that carries out this protein interference and disrupts normal mitochondrial fission, researchers have identified a promising therapeutic avenue for halting cancer growth.
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Tags: 2014, 2013, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Northeast, Hillman Cancer Center, cancer research, cell biology, Microscopy, UPITT, Cell Research, BioResearch Product Faire Event, PA, NIH, Pittsburgh, Northeast Region
Emory University recently received research funding for the Winship Cancer Institute totaling $10 million from the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation. The gifts will fund the Glenn Family Breast Center at Winship and will be directed towards supporting the breast cancer program’s research goals in Georgia, such as funding clinical trials and recruitment. According to an Emory University news article, the Glenn Scholars program, which donates research money to Winship scientists whose breast cancer research has a high impact, will also benefit from the research funding.
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Tags: 2014, Emory University, 2013, Winship Cancer Institute, cancer research, Southern, Georgia, Emory, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research Funding, Atlanta, GA, lab supplier, Southern Region, Cancer Center, charitable giving, research money
Since its first lemonade stand was set up in 2000 by a little girl with cancer, the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has raised over $60M to support pediatric cancer research at institutions across the United States. That's a lot of lemonade. While lemonade stands are still a staple of the organization's activities, celebrity support and large fund raising events like the recent "Lemon Ball" (which raised a record $825K) allow ALSF to leverage the kind of funds that really make a difference. In a recent round of funding awards, the University of California San Francisco's Benioff Children's Hospital was named a Center of Excellence by the foundation and given $1.75M to speed translational research programs and training over the next five years. Chief investigator on the grant is Dr. Katherine Matthay, chief of pediatric oncology at Benioff. She says of the ALSF award in a recent news release:
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Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Francisco, 2013, University of California San Francisco Mission Bay, University of California San Francisco Parnassus, cancer research, Southwest, California, University of California, Pediatric Cancer Research, San Francisco, SFVS, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, San Francisco cancer research, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, UCSF, Parnassus, Mission Bay, Benioff Children's Hospital
Of the eleven scientists just announced as winners of the new Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize, four of them have their labs within a block or two of each other in Manhattan: two at Rockefeller University, one at Weill Cornell Medical College, and one at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The prize, given to recognize past achievement in research aimed at curing disease and extending human life, comes with $3M to allow each of those researchers the freedom and flexibility to pursue even more groundbreaking work in the future. The founding sponsors of the prize are tech entrepreneurs Sergey Brin (Google) and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Priscilla Chan, Art Levinson (Apple), and Yuri Milner (venture capitalist). The 11 winners this year will serve on the board to choose 5 winners each in subsequent years.
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Tags: 2014, Rockefeller University, 2013, Northeast, cancer research, women in science, New York, Weill Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, RockU, BioResearch Product Faire Event, NY, New York City, Cancer Center, Rockefeller
The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland has just announced an important partnership with San Diego-based bioprinting technology company Organovo. Research into the biology of cancer, especially how it metastasizes, has been complicated in the past by the limitations of animal models and cell cultures, which really don't tell us enough about the workings of cancer within a human being. Organovo creates living, 3-D human tissue using their bioprinting device, the NovoGen MMX (below). The partnership between OHSU and Organovo will allow cancer research at Knight Institute labs to much more closely model the complex architecture of malignancy within the human body, using in vitro tissue. Ultimately this will lead to the development of more accurate therapeutics and pre-clinical trials.
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Tags: 2014, 2013, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon Health and Science University, Northwest, cancer research, Oregon, Cancer Treatment, bioprinting, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Front Line event, OR, OHSU, Portland, Northwest Region
If Dr. Seuss were still writing his wonderous books and turned his attention to biotechnology today, we might see a title like Ah, the Things You Can Do With Algae! At the University of California San Diego a number of research institutions have joined together to form the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) where scientists are pursuing all sorts of innovative projects using the ubiquitous green matter that also happens to be a genetic model organism. Which means it is not only easy to grow, but it can do things that bacteria and even mammalian cells can't, like host a genetically engineered protein that targets cancer.
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Tags: CA, University of California San Diego, cancer research, cell biology, Southwest, California, 2012, biology research, UCSD, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, San Diego Biotechnology