Paul Bunn, Jr., MD
Director's Message: Oct. 14, 2008
Members,
Lots of grant news to share this week. Congratulations to:
UCCC members Kian Behbakht, MD, Heide Ford, PhD, and Andrew Thorburn, PhD are co-PIs on a new R01 titled "TRAIL Receptor Signaling in Human Tumors." Drs. Behbakht, Ford and Thorburn recently found that breast and ovarian tumor cells can become selectively resistant to TRAIL through increased expression of homeobox transcription factor Six1. They have hypothesized that Six1 inhibits TRAIL by a specific mechanism, which leads to TRAIL resistance, increased metastasis and poor clinical outcomes. By understanding how this mechanism causes resistance to TRAIL, how the resistance affects disease progression and metastasis, and how it alters clinical outcomes in patients, the group should gain new insights into the value of Six1 as a prognostic marker. Also, their work could help us all better understand how to use the TRAIL therapeutics under development.
Al Malkinson, PhD, has a new RO1, "Lung tumor associated macrophages." Macrophages--the key leukocytes associated with chronic inflammation--play an important role in lung tumor development from initiated cells in lung cancer and in experimental respiratory carcinogenesis. Dr. Malkinson will conduct a series of in vivo modulations of macrophage activation to determine how these inflammatory phenotypes affect lung tumorgenisis in mouse models. The aim: gain a molecular understanding of how inflammation promotes lung cancer.
New member Stephen Malkoski, PhD, received a K08 grant to study "TCFbeta and lung squamous cell carcinoma." He will examine how TCFbeta signaling defects modulate behavior of airway epithelial cells in vivo and in vitro and how these changes promote the growth of lung squamous cell carcinoma.
Wounjhang Park, PhD, received a Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Senior Fellows (F33) to study "Nanoprobes and integrated nanodevices for cancer detection and treatment." Dr. Park will create a training program for an electrical engineer who is an expert in nanotechnology so that he can better understand the clinical needs for early detection of cancer, especially melanoma.
Twila Jackson, PhD, has her first R01, "Extranuclear estrogen receptor actions on endometrial cancer cell proliferation." Estrogen, through the estrogen receptor, provides the primary proliferative signal in the endometrium and controls cellular processes such as proliferation and differentialion in many tissues. The general objectives are to define the mechanisms by which estrogen rapidly activates cyoplasmic signaling pathways, and to examine the functional role of these pathways in indometrial cancer cell proliferation. She will look for important insights into a subset of estrogen receptor actions that may provide potential targets for endocrine therapies.
Cheng-Jun Hu, PhD, has a new R01, "Regulation of Transcriptional Activity of Hypoxia Inducible Factor 2." Solid tumors are commonly hypoxic, and tumor cells in the oxygen-deficient regions turn on hypoxia inducible transcription factor (HIF) activity. HIF allows tumor cells to survive and grow by promoting blood vessel formation, ATP generation and expression of survival factors. Dr. Hu hypothesizes that controling HIF activity will have broad impact for all solid tumors.
Emilia Galperin, PhD, a post-doc in Alex Sorkin's lab, has a new NIH Pathway to Independence (K99) Award, "Regulation of MAP Activity by EGFR Endocytosis." Her research will provide new insight into the specific mechanisms of signal-transduction events by endocytic modlecular cascade that affect tumor progression. Results will define requirements of this instracellular signaling pathway for normal cell function, which will lead to development of new diagnostic markers.
Mayumi Fujita, MD, PhD, has a new R03, "Developing a protocol for profiling blood markers of melanoma." She is hypothesizing that blood-based biomarkers using peripheral blood cells from melanoma patients and high-throughput qRT-PCR gene expression methodology will provide new biomarkers for melanoma.
Congratulations to John Kappler, PhD, and Phillipa Marrack, PhD, who have been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in conjunction with the organization’s 38th annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Have a great week!
Paul A. Bunn, Jr., MD
James Dudley Chair in Cancer Research
Professor and Director, University of Colorado Cancer Center