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Male Brains Wired to Ignore Food in Favour of Sex, Study Shows
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Douglas Portman, Ph.D.
Males can suppress their hunger in order to focus on finding a mate, a new scientific study of a species of worm has shown.
The study, conducted by Douglas Portman at the University of Rochester Medical Center, points to how subtle changes in the brain's circuitry dictate differences in behaviour between males and females.
Marit Aure, PhD, Shares 1st Place in World-Wide Dental Research Contest
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Postdoctoral associate Marit Aure, PhD, of the Center for Oral Biology in the
Eastman Institute for Oral Health and member of Catherine Ovitt's lab, tied for first
place at the highly-competitive International Association for Dental Research/Johnson & Johnson Hatton Awards
Competition held recently in Cape Town, South Africa.
The judges determined that the science presented by Aure and Joo-young Park, affiliated with the National Cancer
Institute/National Institutes of Health, was exemplary in both projects, surpassing 36 other researchers from around
the world in their category. There was no second place winner.
Aure had qualified for the international competition by earning second place in the American Association of Dental
Research/Johnson & Johnson Hatton Awards Competition, held in Charlotte, North Carolina in March. For the
international round of the competition, all participants were required to condense the research talk into a
four-slide, 10-minute presentation to be given in front of three judges.
Telling the whole story in 10 minutes and four slides was especially challenging,
said Aure, who said the
poker-faced judges had some very tough questions. My reaction to winning was a mix of surprise, excitement and joy!
It feels really good to get positive feedback and exposure for the salivary research we’re doing.
Read More: Marit Aure, PhD, Shares 1st Place in World-Wide Dental Research ContestWilmot Cancer Institute Scientists Receive $2M Award from NCI
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The National Cancer Institute awarded more than $2 million to a team at the Wilmot Cancer Institute to continue their study of a gene network that controls cancer progression, with a focus on pancreatic cancer.
The five-year grant will fund a series of new scientific experiments involving a gene known as Plac8. In earlier work, Wilmot investigators showed that by inactivating Plac8 they could stop or slow pancreatic tumor growth in mice and significantly extend survival -- making Plac8 an attractive target for drug development.
Principle investigator Hartmut Hucky
Land, Ph.D., and co-investigator Aram Hezel, M.D., had been studying a wider system of genes and cellular events involved in cancer, when they discovered that Plac8 is a key driver in malignancies but is not essential to the function of normal tissue.
Read More: Wilmot Cancer Institute Scientists Receive $2M Award from NCIFive Recognized for Research Excellence
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Five Eastman Institute for Oral Health professionals were recognized at this month’s American Association for Dental Research’s local meeting.
Thirty researchers from the Rochester area participated in oral and poster presentations covering a wide range of basic and translational
science topics, such as fluoride varnish effectiveness, use of therapy dogs in pediatric dental settings and the success of implants, among many others.
Dr. Catherine E. Ovitt, Ph.D., associate professor of Biomedical Genetics in EIOH's Center for Oral Biology, delivered the
keynote address, Saving Saliva: Where do We Start?
where Marit Aure, Ph.D. a Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Ovitt's lab, won the
William H. Bowen award for her poster presentation, Mechanisms of Acinar Cell Maintenance in the Adult Salivary Gland
.
Read the full article.
Gene Discovery Links Cancer Cell ‘Recycling’ System to Potential New Therapy
Thursday, May 1, 2014
University of Rochester scientists have discovered a gene with a critical link to pancreatic cancer, and further investigation in mice shows that by blocking the gene’s most important function, researchers can slow the disease and extend survival.
Published online by Cell Reports, the finding offers a potential new route to intrude on a cancer that usually strikes quickly, has been stubbornly resistant to targeted therapies, and has a low survival rate. Most recent improvements in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, in fact, are the result of using different combinations of older chemotherapy drugs.
The research led by Hartmut Hucky
Land, Ph.D., and Aram F. Hezel, M.D., of UR Medicine's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, identifies a new target in the process of garbage recycling that occurs within the cancer cell called autophagy, which is critical to pancreatic cancer progression and growth.
Read More: Gene Discovery Links Cancer Cell ‘Recycling’ System to Potential New TherapyTwo NGP Students Win Schmitt Program on Integrative Brain Research Travel Awards
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Grayson Sipe, a 4thNGP student in Dr. Ania Majewska's lab and Heather Natola, a second-year student in Dr. Christoph Pröschel and
Margot Mayer-Pröschel labs won the travel awards. Grayson used this award to attend the EMBL Conference: Microglia: Guardians of the Brain, March 26-29, 2014, held in Berlin, Germany, and Heather used it to travel to the 45th annual American Society of Neurochemistry meeting in Long Beach, CA, March 8-12, 2014
Allison Greminger Defends Thesis & Receives Prize for Best Graduate Student Publication at Toxicology Retreat
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Allison Greminger successfully defended her thesis entitled, Characterizing the Neurodevelopmental Sequalae in a Dual Insult Model of Gestational Iron Deficiency and Lead (Pb) Exposure. Her work was especially acknowledged at the Annual Retreat Dinner and Awards Ceremony on May 29th, where she received the prize for the best publication by a graduate student in the 2014 Environmental Medicine Toxicology Training Program.
Congratulations Allison!
Marit Aure Places 2nd in the AADR/Johnson & Johnson Hatton Awards Competition.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Marit Aure, a Postdoctoral Associate from Catherine Ovitt's lab, has earned 2nd place in the AADR/Johnson & Johnson Hatton Awards Competition. She will now compete in the IADR Unilever Hatton Competition and Awards at the 92nd General Session & Exhibition of the IADR in Cape Town, South Africa, June 25-28, 2014.
Congratulations Marit!
Researchers Awarded $3.5 Million in NYS Stem Cell Grants
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Six scientists from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry have been recommended awards of more than $3.5 million by NYSTEM. The grants are for a wide range of research programs in the fields of neurological disorders, bone growth and repair, and cancer.
The diversity of these awards demonstrates that stem cell biology has become an essential research tool in a wide range of diseases,
said Mark Taubman, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. State investments in stem cell research -- both for individual research programs and to create resources such as the Upstate Stem Cell cGMP Facility -- has enabled many promising discoveries in this field to continue to move forward. In many instances, this research may have otherwise stalled for lack of funding support from other sources.
Among the 6 researchers are Biomedical Genetics' own Wei Hsu, Mark Noble, Margot Mayer-Pröschel and Jianwen Que.
Read More: Researchers Awarded $3.5 Million in NYS Stem Cell GrantsLocal Researchers Develop Possible Treatment for Parkinson's
Monday, February 10, 2014
Researchers in Rochester have developed a new cell therapy that could treat Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder which affects motor function. The study from the University of Rochester Medical Center suggests this new approach could not only halt progression of the disease, but also reverse its impact on the brain.
Now, researchers have found a way to use supporter cells known as astrocytes to spur wider recovery throughout the brain. So we can think of them as a work crew that delivers multiple tools at the same time, each of which can target a different cell population,
says lead author Chris Proschel.
Proschel says they were careful to begin their treatment only after their lab mice had developed signs of Parkinson’s disease. He says this delay is important because it mimics the way therapies are actually used in humans, where damage has occurred and symptoms have presented before any treatment is carried out.
Read More: Local Researchers Develop Possible Treatment for Parkinson'sFinding Points to Possible New Parkinson’s Therapy
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A recent study shows that, when properly manipulated, a population of support cells found in the brain called astrocytes could provide a new and promising approach to treat Parkinson's disease. These findings, which were made using an animal model of the disease, demonstrate that a single therapy could simultaneously repair the multiple types of neurological damage caused by Parkinson's, providing an overall benefit that has not been achieved in other approaches.
One of the central challenges in Parkinson's disease is that many different cell types are damaged, each of which is of potential importance,
said Chris Proschel, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Biomedical Genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and lead author of the study which appears today in the European journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. However, while we know that the collective loss of these cells contributes to the symptoms of the disease, much of the current research is focused on the recovery of only one cell type.
Read More: Finding Points to Possible New Parkinson’s TherapyDr. Catherine Ovitt Accepted to the 2013 Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Dr. Catherine Ovitt has been accepted to the 2013 Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar to be held in Austin, TX in mid December. This three and a half-day seminar is primarily designed for women physicians and scientists holding medical school appointments at the Associate Professor level, and holding leadership positions within their discipline, department or institution. Seminar faculty members are chosen from various schools in the US and Canada for their demonstrated leadership abilities and offer knowledge, inspiration and valuable career advice to participants.
Fred Sherman, Major Contributor to Modern Genetics, Dies
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Dr. Fred Sherman
Fred Sherman, Ph.D., an internationally recognized scientist and a faculty member at the University of Rochester Medical Center since 1962, died on September 16 at the age of 81. Sherman, who served as chair of the Department of Biochemistry and then the merged Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics from 1982 until 1999, was one of only three URMC faculty members appointed to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
Sherman performed groundbreaking research on the structure of genes and the effects of genetic mutations on proteins in yeast. He was also a proponent of the use of baker's yeast as a genetic model system. Research using yeast is now conducted at virtually all research centers worldwide, largely due to Sherman’s efforts and his teaching of many leaders in the field.
It’s hard to overstate Fred’s contribution to modern genetics. His insights into how genetic mutations affect protein coding and his foresight of the utility of the yeast system quite literally changed the course of biological research,
said Jeffrey J. Hayes, Ph.D., chair of Biochemistry and Biophysics at URMC. Beyond his scientific accomplishments, Fred’s quick wit and sense of humor were legendary. It was always enjoyable to be in a room with Fred. He will be terribly missed.
The Democrat and Chronicle has published an article about Fred's life, viewable here.
Read More: Fred Sherman, Major Contributor to Modern Genetics, DiesMental Fog with Tamoxifen is Real; Scientists Find Possible Antidote
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
A team from the University of Rochester Medical Center has shown scientifically what many women report anecdotally: that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen is toxic to cells of the brain and central nervous system, producing mental fogginess similar to chemo brain.
However, in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers also report they've discovered an existing drug compound that appears to counteract or rescue brain cells from the adverse effects of the breast cancer drug.
Corresponding author Mark Noble, Ph.D., professor of Biomedical Genetics and director of the UR Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute, said it's exciting to potentially be able to prevent a toxic reaction to one of the oldest and most widely used breast cancer medications on the market. Although tamoxifen is more easily tolerated compared to most cancer treatments, it nonetheless produces troubling side effects in a subset of the large number of people who take it.
Read More: Mental Fog with Tamoxifen is Real; Scientists Find Possible AntidoteOvitt Article Featured on NIDCR Website
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Drs. Catherine Ovitt & Szilvia
Arany's article, Nanoparticle-mediated gene silencing confers radioprotection to salivary glands in
vivo
journal Molecular Therapy, has been featured on NIDCR website. The results of the study suggest that
optimization of in vivo siRNA-mediated silencing for clinical application could be an effective means of
protecting salivary glands in the radiation treatment of head and neck cancer. They also pointed out that the
approach has significant advantages over alternative methods, as it is limited to the salivary glands, does not
involve viruses, and the block in Pkcδ protein expression is only temporary.
@ISSCR 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Above is Part 3 of ISSCR's video blogs from the 2013 ISSCR annual meeting. This video introduces the fascinating research in cell-based CNS repair done by Dr. Christoph Pröschel.
Dr. Pröschel’s most recent work has focused on using human glial progenitor cells to repair damage to the CNS caused by spinal cord injury. In a 2011 study published in PLoS One, Dr. Pröschel and colleagues describe how human glial precursors were able to restore motor function to spinal cord-injured rats. In our interview, Dr. Pröschel explains the difference between replacement and repair in cell-based regenerative medicine, a theme that fellow spinal cord injury researcher Dr. Aileen Anderson of UC Irvine also frequently touches on. In our video, Dr. Pröschel also has some remarks about direct lineage reprogramming.
Potential New Way to Suppress Tumor Growth Discovered
Monday, June 3, 2013
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center, have identified a new mechanism that appears to suppress tumor growth, opening the possibility of developing a new class of anti-cancer drugs.
Writing in this week's online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Willis X. Li, PhD, a professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego, reports that a particular form of a signaling protein called STAT5A stabilizes the formation of heterochromatin (a form of chromosomal DNA), which in turn suppresses the ability of cancer cells to issue instructions to multiply and grow.
Co-authors are Xiaoyu Hu, Amy Tsurumi and Hartmut Land, Department of Biomedical Genetics, University of Rochester Medical Center; Pranabananda Dutta, Jinghong Li and Jingtong Wang, Department of Medicine, UCSD.
Read More: Potential New Way to Suppress Tumor Growth DiscoveredWilmot Cancer Center Update - May 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Mark Noble, Ph.D. and doctoral student Hsing-Yu Chen studied the molecular mechanism that allows basal-like breast cancer cells to escape the secondary effects of tamoxifen, and discovered that two proteins are critical in this escape.
The research, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, shows how to exploit tamoxifen's secondary activities so that it might work on more aggressive breast cancer—a promising development for women with basal-like breast cancer, sometimes known as triple-negative disease.
Researchers Identify New Pathway, Enhancing Tamoxifen to Tame Aggressive Breast Cancer
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Tamoxifen is a time-honored breast cancer drug used to treat millions of women with early-stage and less-aggressive disease, and now a University of Rochester Medical Center team has shown how to exploit tamoxifen’s secondary activities so that it might work on more aggressive breast cancer.
The research, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, is a promising development for women with basal-like breast cancer, sometimes known as triple-negative disease. Led by doctoral student Hsing-Yu Chen and Mark Noble, Ph.D., professor of Biomedical Genetics at URMC, the team studied the molecular mechanism that allows basal-like breast cancer cells to escape the secondary effects of tamoxifen, and discovered that two proteins are critical in this escape.
Read More: Researchers Identify New Pathway, Enhancing Tamoxifen to Tame Aggressive Breast CancerLindy McClelland awarded NIH F31
Friday, October 19, 2012
Lindy McClelland, a Genetics Ph.D. student, has been awarded an NIH F31 grant award. This award will provide three years of support toward stipend, tuition, health fees and lab supplies. Project Title: Tis11 Mediated mRNA degradation regulates intestinal stem cell quiescence
Drs. Ovitt and Benoit Awarded NIH Grant
Friday, September 14, 2012
Salivary gland cells are viable encapsulated within hydrogels: A dissociated cell prep
prepared from whole submandibular gland was seeded into PEG hydrogels and incubated in serum-free media.
Biomedical Genetics assistant professor, Catherine Ovitt,
Ph.D. and Danielle Benoit, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, have been awarded a four year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the project,
entitled Hydrogel encapsulation of salivary gland cells promotes cell survival, proliferation, and assembly.
This project deals with potential utility of adult stem or progenitor cells for repair of radiation-damaged salivary
glands. While the potential is high, it is currently only a theoretical solution for patients suffering from
xerostomia. There remain several critical obstacles that must be resolved before cell-based therapy for
dysfunctional salivary glands can be moved into the clinical arena. These include the identification of appropriate
donor cells, the technology for promoting implantation, and direct functional assays to assess the outcomes.
The goal is to determine if the use of hydrogels can promote in vivo differentiation of transplanted
progenitor cells. The successful completion of this project will establish a foundation for subsequent translational
research to progress the technology into clinical applications.
For more information please visit the Ovitt Lab and the Benoit Lab.
URMC Geneticists Verify Cholesterol-Cancer Link
Thursday, September 13, 2012
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered new genetic evidence linking cholesterol and cancer, raising the possibility that cholesterol medications could be useful in the future for cancer prevention or to augment existing cancer treatment.
The data, published in the online journal Cell Reports, support several recent population-based studies that suggest individuals who take cholesterol-lowering drugs may have a reduced risk of cancer, and, conversely that individuals with the highest levels of cholesterol seem to have an elevated risk of cancer.
The cancer-cholesterol question has been debated since the early 20th century, and along with it doctors and scientists have observed various trends and associations. However, until now genetic evidence directly linking cholesterol and malignancy has been lacking, said senior author Hartmut (Hucky) Land, Ph.D., Robert and Dorothy Markin Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Genetics and Professor in the department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, and director of research and co-director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at URMC.
Read More: URMC Geneticists Verify Cholesterol-Cancer LinkURMC Researchers Connect New Genetic Signature to Leukemia
Monday, August 27, 2012
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists believe they are the first to identify genes that underlie the growth of primitive leukemia stem cells; and then to use the new genetic signature to identify currently available drugs that selectively target the rogue cells.
Read More: URMC Researchers Connect New Genetic Signature to LeukemiaNicole Scott awarded NIH F31
Monday, April 23, 2012
Nicole Scott, a Genetics Ph.D. student in Dr. Mark Noble's lab, has been awarded an NIH F31 grant award. This award will provide three years of support toward stipend, tuition, health fees and lab supplies. Project Title: Effect of early psychosine accumulation in Krabbe disease on CNS progenitor cells
URMC Researchers Exploring Keys to Melanoma Progression
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Melanoma is devastating on many fronts: rates are rising dramatically among young people, it is deadly if not caught early, and from a biological standpoint, the disease tends to adapt to even the most modern therapies, known as VEGF inhibitors. University of Rochester researchers, however, made an important discovery about proteins that underlie and stimulate the disease, opening the door for a more targeted treatment in the future.
Read More: URMC Researchers Exploring Keys to Melanoma ProgressionIron Deficiency Pre-Conception And In Early Pregnancy Harms Developing Brain
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A mother's iron deficiency early in pregnancy may have a profound and long-lasting effect on the brain development of the child, even if the lack of iron is not enough to cause severe anemia, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study published in the scientific journal PLoS One.
The results are important because obstetricians might not notice or treat mild or moderate iron deficiency, and therefore the study authors believe their research underscores the need for monitoring a pregnant woman's iron status beyond anemia.
What convinced us to conduct the present study were our preliminary data suggesting that cells involved in building the embryonic brain during the first trimester were most sensitive to low iron levels,
said Margot Mayer-Proschel, Ph.D., the lead researcher and an associate professor of Biomedical Genetics at URMC.
Read More: Iron Deficiency Pre-Conception And In Early Pregnancy Harms Developing BrainPre-Conception and Early Pregnancy Iron Deficiency Harms Brain
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A mother's iron deficiency early in pregnancy may have a profound and long-lasting effect on the brain development of the child, even if the lack of iron is not enough to cause severe anemia, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study published in the scientific journal PLoS One.
What convinced us to conduct the present study were our preliminary data suggesting that cells involved in building the embryonic brain during the first trimester were most sensitive to low iron levels,
said Margot Mayer-Proschel, Ph.D., the lead researcher and an associate professor of Biomedical Genetics at URMC.
Co-author Anne Luebke, Ph.D., an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurobiology & Anatomy at UR, suggested and directed the use of ABR testing, which can detect the speed of information moving from the ear to the brain.
Read More: Pre-Conception and Early Pregnancy Iron Deficiency Harms BrainResearchers Focus on Human Cells in Spinal Cord Injury Repair
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well.
The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and indicates that transplantation of these cells represents a potential new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and other central nervous system disorders.
We’ve shown in previous research that the right types of rat astrocytes are beneficial, but this study brings it up to the human level, which is a huge step,
said Chris Proschel, Ph.D., lead study author and assistant professor of Genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. What’s really striking is the robustness of the effect. Scientists have claimed repair of spinal cord injuries in rats before, but the benefits have been variable and rarely as strong as what we’ve seen with our transplants.
To create the different types of astrocytes used in the experiment, researchers isolated human glial precursor cells, first identified by Margot Mayer-Proschel, Ph.D., associate professor of Genetics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and exposed these precursor cells to two different signaling molecules used to instruct different astrocytic cell fate – BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) or CNTF (ciliary neurotrophic factor).
Read More: Researchers Focus on Human Cells in Spinal Cord Injury RepairHilton Foundation Funds Pancreatic Cancer Research
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Sally Edelman-Harry Gardner Cancer Research Foundation, a Hilton-based grassroots organization dedicated to finding cures for cancer, has awarded $50,000 grant to a pair of scientists working to better understand the mechanisms of pancreatic cancer.
Hartmut Hucky
Land, Ph.D., chair of Biomedical Genetics and scientific director of Wilmot Cancer Center, and Aram Hezel, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine and gastrointestinal oncologist, received the funding to study a new potential target in pancreatic cancer that Land recently identified. Hezel will build upon Land's laboratory findings to determine whether the new target is effective in treating the disease.
Each year, about 43,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a deadly disease with few warning signs or symptoms until it has spread to other organs. Survival rates are poor. Pancreatic cancer has received significant attention in recent years after actor Patrick Swayze succumbed to the disease.
Any advances that we can make to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer are a major step forward,
says Richard I. Fisher, M.D., director of the Wilmot Cancer Center. It's wonderful to see this Foundation continue to partner with us to find cures.
Stem Cell Disruption Induces Skull Deformity, UR Study Shows
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered a defect in cellular pathways that provides a new explanation for the earliest stages of abnormal skull development in newborns, known as craniosynostosis.
Read More: Stem Cell Disruption Induces Skull Deformity, UR Study Shows$3.3 million grant from the Empire State Stem Cell Board
Monday, May 24, 2010
The University of Rochester Medical Center has received a $3.3 million grant from the Empire State Stem Cell Board for the construction of a new facility that will enable scientists to produce human stem cells suitable for testing new therapies.
Read More: $3.3 million grant from the Empire State Stem Cell Board22nd Annual Genetics Day held May 7, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Today, the department of Biomedical Genetics 22nd Annual Genetics Day
was highlighted by the 8th Annual Fred Sherman Lecture. Dr. Fred Sherman, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry & Biophysics has been honored for his contributions to
Genetics and Yeast Genetics for the past nine years with a lecture named after him. The NIH has funded Fred for a remarkable 45 years, during which time he
has published over 280 papers, with more on the way.
In 1970, Fred initiated the famous yeast course at Cold Spring
Harbor, which has trained scores of today’s leading investigators. He served as an instructor in this course
for 17 years. Fred’s many landmark contributions to several fields of molecular biology were recognized by his
election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1985.
Genetics Day is an annual event, including a poster session and plenary lectures, that brings together the
University genetics community defined in its broadest sense. This year, Dr. Stuart L. Schreiber, Director of Chemical
Biology at and Founding Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, gave the Sherman Lecture entitled,
Relating the genetic features of cancers to drug efficacies using small-molecule probes.
In Journey from Maggot to Fruit Fly, a Clue about Cancer Metastasis
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Scientists trying to understand how cancer cells invade healthy tissue have used the fruit fly’s metamorphosis from maggot to flying insect as a guide to identify a key molecular signal that may be involved in both processes.
Read More: In Journey from Maggot to Fruit Fly, a Clue about Cancer MetastasisScientists Share Latest Research at National Conference
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Scientists at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center who investigate lymphoma and leukemia were among the top presenters at the American Society of Hematology 51st Annual Meeting, Dec. 5-8, 2009, in New Orleans.
Read More: Scientists Share Latest Research at National ConferenceProtein Regulates Movement of Mitochondria in Brain Cells
Monday, June 15, 2009
Scientists have identified a protein in the brain that plays a key role in the function of mitochondria – the part of the cell that supplies energy, supports cellular activity, and potentially wards off threats from disease. The discovery, which was reported today in the Journal of Cell Biology, may shed new light on how the brain recovers from stroke.
Read More: Protein Regulates Movement of Mitochondria in Brain CellsURMC Scientists Awarded $6.8 Million in Stem Cell Research Grants
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ten scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have been awarded more than $6.8 million by the Empire State Stem Cell Board. The grants are for a wide range of research programs in the fields of neurological disorders, cancer, musculoskeletal diseases, the blood system, and efforts to understand the fundamental mechanics of stem cell biology.
Scientists Discover Why Teeth Form in a Single Row
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A system of opposing genetic forces determines why mammals develop a single row of teeth, while sharks sport several, according to a study published February 26, 2009 in the journal Science. When completely understood, the genetic program described in the study may help guide efforts to re-grow missing teeth and prevent cleft palate, one of the most common birth defects.
Read More: Scientists Discover Why Teeth Form in a Single RowRochester Launches Cancer Stem Cell Research Program
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The promise of cancer stem cell research has reached a critical point and the University of Rochester Medical Center
is establishing itself as a leader in the field by creating a Cancer Stem Cell Research Program. The Medical
Center's top scientists are collaborating to discover cures for cancer by closely examining the master cells
of this deadly disease. This program is one of only three formal programs in the United States. The two others are
at Harvard and Stanford universities. This is a new avenue for scientists to pursue in an effort to find the
underlying causes of cancer.
Oncologists have long treated cancer by attacking the tumors, but in many cases without getting at the root of the
disease - the cancer stem cells - which tend to be drug resistant and a potential cause of relapse,
said
Craig Jordan, Ph.D., director of Translational Research for Hematologic Malignancies at the James P. Wilmot
Cancer Center and associate professor of Medicine and Biomedical Genetics.
Jordan and colleagues, Monica Guzman, Ph.D., and Mark Noble, Ph.D., authored a primer
on cancer stem cells in the Sept. 21 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, outlining the data available
today and challenges that are ahead for scientists and oncologists.
Read More: Rochester Launches Cancer Stem Cell Research ProgramStudy of Placenta Unexpectedly Leads to Cancer Gene
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered a gene mutation that impairs the placenta and also is influential in cancer development, according to a study published online December 16, 2008, in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.
Read More: Study of Placenta Unexpectedly Leads to Cancer Gene$2.7M Boosts Effort to Create the Big View of Cancer
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Many scientists like to discuss how each form of cancer is a distinct disease with its own causes and its own treatments. But researcher Hartmut Hucky
Land, Ph.D., takes the opposite approach: He is hunting for the most basic rules that all cancers share to make good cells go bad.
His unique, far-reaching effort to understand the disease at its roots poses a huge challenge that is matched only by the potential payoff - findings that could lead to new treatments for not just one but many forms of cancer.
The project has taken a big step forward with a $2.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to unravel the gene networks at the heart of colon cancer. The funding will support work for the next five years in the laboratory of Land, who is scientific director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Read More: $2.7M Boosts Effort to Create the Big View of CancerSearching For Cancer's Achilles' Heel
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
A new approach to finding genes important in the onset of cancer is described in Nature. The findings could help to identify new targets for tumor therapy.
Several genes, or oncogenes,
cooperate with each other to transform normal cells into cancer cells. Hartmut Land and colleagues have now identified a list of other genes - termed cooperation response genes
(CRGs) - that are regulated downstream of these oncogenes.
By interfering with each CRG individually, the team were able to show that 14 out of 24 of them had a critical role in tumor formation. Restoring expression of these genes to the levels observed in normal cells prevented the formation of tumors. What's more, genetic perturbations of CRGs with relatively smaller effects when examined on their own show evidence of being essential when analyzed in combination.
The findings represent an important step in the search for the chink in the armor in human cancer - the elusive gene that cancer cells simply cannot live without.
Read More: Searching For Cancer's Achilles' Heel
Researchers Find Roadmap to Next-Generation Cancer Therapies
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Pinpointing new targets for cancer treatments is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, yet a University of Rochester team has discovered an entire novel class of genes they believe will lead to a greater understanding of cancer cell function and the next generation of effective and less harmful therapies for patients.
Read More: Researchers Find Roadmap to Next-Generation Cancer TherapiesStopping a Receptor Called 'Nogo' Boosts the Synapses
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Changing dendritic spines on a neuron - evidence of brain rewiring
New findings about a protein called the nogo receptor are offering fresh ways to think about keeping the brain sharp. Scientists have found that reducing the nogo receptor in the brain results in stronger brain signaling in mice, effectively boosting signal strength between the synapses, the connections between nerve cells in the brain. The ability to enhance such connections is central to the brain's ability to rewire, a process that happens constantly as we learn and remember. The findings are in the March 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
The work ties together several research threads that touch upon the health benefits of exercise. While those benefits are broadly recognized, how the gains accrue at a molecular level has been largely unknown. The new research gives scientists a way to produce changes in the brain that mirror those brought about by exercise, by reducing the effect of the nogo receptor.
The find comes as a surprise, because for much of the last decade, the nogo receptor has been a prime target of researchers trying to coax nerves in the spinal cord to grow again. They named the protein after its ability to stop neurons from growing. Its action in the brain has not been a hot topic of study.
Read More: Stopping a Receptor Called 'Nogo' Boosts the SynapsesCancer Researcher to Discuss Gene Mutations, Paths to Treatment
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Hartmut Hucky
Land, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Genetics, will give a talk titled Construction and Deconstruction of Cancer Cells,
as part of a lecture series highlighting biological and biomedical research at the University of Rochester.
Land will lead a discussion at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, in the Adolph Auditorium (1-7619). The talk is the latest installment of the Second Fridays Science Social
for faculty, staff and students at the University, although the public is welcome to attend. The lectures are free.
Read More: Cancer Researcher to Discuss Gene Mutations, Paths to TreatmentIf You Think Cancer Genes Are Simple, You Don't Know JAK
Monday, September 17, 2007
Cancer-causing genes can work in more powerful and sneaky ways than has been realized. Scientists have shown that a gene named JAK that is closely related to a common cancer-causing gene in people tips the scales toward cancer in an unexpected manner. JAK disrupts the activity of an organism’s DNA on a broad scale, thwarting a critical molecular event very early on in an embryo’s development.
Read More: If You Think Cancer Genes Are Simple, You Don't Know JAKScientists Uncover New Target in Cancer Mutation Puzzle
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
University of Rochester scientists, while investigating the two most frequent types of mutations in cancer, discovered a possible new route to treatment that would take advantage of the mutations instead of trying to repair them. The research is reported online this week in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
In experiments with rodent and human cells, co-authors Mingxuan Xia, Ph.D., and Hartmut Land, Ph.D., explored how the Rho family of proteins, which are involved in cell movement, and thus in the progression from benign to malignant cancer, are controlled by two well-known cancer genes, p53 and Ras. By closing in on this deadly collaboration, researchers showed for the first time why some molecules such as Rho are targeted by cancer genes - and how they might lead to a promising way to intervene against cancer.
We have very little understanding of how Ras and p53 or any other potent gene mutations cooperate to cause malignant tumors,
said Land, who is professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Genetics and scientific director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester. But we have suspected for a long time that the way to develop rational searches for new drug targets is to first understand how these oncogenes cooperate. And in this study we’ve shown for the first time that this idea might work.
Read More: Scientists Uncover New Target in Cancer Mutation PuzzleCell Decisions
Friday, September 1, 2006
As far as Mark Noble is concerned, the next medical revolution
arrived more than 30 years ago. That’s when the Rochester professor of biomedical genetics and scientists like him at academic medical centers across the country first began to grasp the potential of stem cells.
In Noble’s lab and in the labs of scientists across the Medical Center, Rochester scientists have been exploring that potential for several years, helping lead research projects focused on new cancer treatments, the role nutrition plays in early development, and in understanding how to repair damage to the brain and nervous system.
Chris Proschel, Mark Noble, and Margot Mayer-Proschel have worked together as a team since 1990. They played key roles in identifying—and are considered to be among the best in the world at handling—the four known progenitor cells for the various cells found in the central nervous system.
Read More: Cell DecisionsNovel Stem Cell Technology Leads to Better Spinal Cord Repair
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Researchers believe they have identified a new way, using an advance in stem-cell technology, to promote recovery after spinal cord injury of rats, according to a study published in today’s Journal of Biology. Scientists from the New York State Center of Research Excellence in Spinal Cord Injury showed that rats receiving a transplant of a certain type of immature support cell from the central nervous system (generated from stem cells) had more than 60 percent of their sensory nerve fibers regenerate. Just as importantly, the study showed that more than two-thirds of the nerve fibers grew all the way through the injury sites eight days later, a result that is much more promising than previous research. The rats that received the cell transplants also walked normally in two weeks.
These studies provide a way to make cells do what we want them to do, instead of simply putting stem cells into the damaged area and hoping the injury will cause the stem cells to turn into the most useful cell types,
explains Mark Noble, Ph.D., co-author of the paper, professor of Genetics at the University of Rochester, and a pioneer in the field of stem cell research. It really changes the way we think about this problem.
The breakthrough is based on many years of stem cell biology research led by Margot Mayer-Proschel, Ph.D., associate professor of Genetics at the University of Rochester. In the laboratory, Mayer-Proschel and colleagues took embryonic glial stem cells and induced them to change into a specific type of support cell called an astrocyte, which is known to be highly supportive of nerve fiber growth. These astrocytes, called glial precursor-derived astrocytes or GDAs, were then transplanted into the injured spinal cords of adult rats. Healing and recovery of the GDA rats was compared to other injured rats that received either no treatment at all or treatment with undifferentiated stem cells.
Read More: Novel Stem Cell Technology Leads to Better Spinal Cord RepairMyc's Cancer-Causing Joy Ride More Reckless than Previously Believed
Thursday, October 7, 1999
Many drivers feel the urge to floor the accelerator on a crisp sunny day when the highway ahead seems to stretch straight to eternity. But only the most foolish would cut the brake line while pushing the pedal to the metal. Yet one of the body's most potent cancer-causing genes does precisely that inside a cell, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The result of the unfettered molecular joy ride is, oftentimes, cancer. Details of the research are in the October issue of the Journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
Scientists have long recognized that the protein produced by a gene known as myc spurs a cell to grow. Just like pushing the accelerator makes a car move forward, producing more myc makes a cell grow and divide. Too much myc spells an invitation to cancer, where cells grow uncontrollably and invade other tissues.
Now scientists have found that myc is even more powerful than they anticipated: The gene also has a role in disabling the molecular signals, the brakes,
that cells rely on to slow growth. When myc is out of control, not only is the accelerator floored but the brakes are out. It's no wonder that the gene plays a role in many human cancers, including those in the lung, colon, breast, bladder, and brain.
Myc is central to our cells' ability to grow, divide, and even die when they should,
says Hartmut Land, Ph.D., director of the University's Center for Cancer Biology and lead investigator of the EMBO study. Basically, myc is like the starter of an engine; it's responsible for making the whole cell go. It's a very potent gene, but one that's been slow to yield its secrets. Myc has been a conundrum.
Read More: Myc's Cancer-Causing Joy Ride More Reckless than Previously Believed