We thank our anonymous donor for a kind $500 contribution towards the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative, with the specific goal of advancing new treatments for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. 
We are excited to welcome Anuradha "Anu" Soundararajan to our research team. Anu obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Madras in 2000, where she was recognized with the award for Best Outgoing Student for her college. After earning a Masters degree in medical physics from Anna University then professional experience as a Medical Physicist at the Cancer Institute in India, Anu pursued and recently completed a PhD in Medical Diagnostic Physics from the Department of Radiology at UTHSCSA. William “Bill” Phillips and Beth Goins were mentors to Anu, whose doctoral thesis project related to Chemo-Radionuclide Therapy with 186-Re labeled Liposomal Doxorubicin in combination with Radiofrequency Ablation for Effective Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer. Anu brings specific new strength to our research program in the area of Molecular Imaging. Her long term career goals include applied academic research for cancer using genetically engineered mouse models, imaging, and image-guided therapies. Welcome, Anu!
We sincerely thank consultant Mei Zhang for our tutorial on advanced mouse ultrasound imaging this past week. Mei is a clinical and preclinical ultrasonographer with a special gift as a teacher. Her thoughtful on site training makes it possible for us to better determine the response of childhood rhabdomyosarcomas to novel targeted therapies. We are so grateful to you, Mei. Charles, Aoife and the Keller Lab Team.
Congratulations to Tohru, whose work on the muscle microenvironment was accepted today to the journal, Differentiation. Drs. Ishiguro, Yamanouchi, and Nishihara co-author this exciting work. We are excited to have Tohru as part of our team, especially as we delve deeper into muscle stem cell (satellite cell) biology which underlies the formation of certain types of rhabdomyosarcoma.
We are the fortunate recipients of a two year grant from The National Brain Tumor Society for our study, "Proteasome Inhibitor-Mediated Reversal of Shh-Driven Tumorigenesis". We are both excited and grateful to join the NBTS mission - to find a cure for brain tumors. The annual meeting today was a terrific way for NBTS to share their projects and collaborative ideas. 
Hunter and Jinu gave terrific presentations at the South Padre Symposium on Cell Signaling. Mandy was a co-first author of the talk presented by Hunter. A lot of good feedback and new ideas were discussed. Special kudos to Jinu for what was deemed a very good demonstration of bedside to benchtop and back for his experimental therapeutics work.
Eri has been a key member of our team for 2 years, and now with her Oncogene publication just out and another in review, Eri is moving to the next step in her career. Eri will be performing her second postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew S. Brack at the Center of Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard. We can't be happier for Eri, and can't wait to see what she'll accomplish in such a rich research environment with one of muscle biology's young rising star faculty. Congratulations, Eri!
[ pictured above right: Eri's dog, Chris, a native Texan, who is anticipated to adapt well to the Northeast. ]
We are excited that Sachiko Ohshima, MD, has recently joined our laboratory. Sachiko is a board-certified neurologist, having done her clinical training at Kyushu University Hospital and National Fukuoka-Higashi Medical Center, Japan. Sachiko then pursued a PhD under the guidance of Dr. Shin'ichi Takeda at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry in Tokyo and will defend her thesis project early next year at Kyushu University. Sachiko's exciting first-author work on gene therapy for the treatment of muscular dystrophy in dogs will be soon published in Molecular Therapy. In our laboratory, Sachiko will a project leader for brain tumor research. Welcome, Sachiko!
We couldn't be more proud than to announce that our graduate student, Lisa Nevell, has been accepted for a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of 2007 Nobel laureate Mario R. Capecchi at the University of Utah. (Mario was Charles' mentor, too, but many more years ago.) Lisa was a joint graduate student of George Washington University and UTHSCSA. Her project in our lab was to understand the function of the gene Pax7, which controls neuromuscular development and embryonic patterning. Congratulations, Lisa, and Best Wishes! 
Mandy and Hunter gave a terrific presentation today at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) Annual RISE/MARC Symposium. While the details of their study will be described in an upcoming manuscript, we are very proud of the teamwork and initiative shown by Mandy and Hunter on this complex series of experiments studying bone marrow stem cells in genetically-engineered mice!
Lilliana "Lilly" Paredes graduated from the University of Texas El Paso with a major in Biology this past Spring. As an undergraduate, Lilly participated in a molecular parasitology research laboratory at UTEP. This exciting and productive experience inspired her to pursue a research career. As a first year graduate student in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UTHSCSA, Lilly's current interests include Microbiology, Genetics and Pharmacology. During her Fall rotation in our laboratory, Lilly will be co-mentored by Koichi and Charles. 
National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day draws attention to more than 12,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States with many fold more children diagnosed across the Americas and worldwide. While outcome for the most common form of childhood leukemia has improved from a 5% cure rate forty-five years ago to more than 90% now, many other childhood cancers have cure rates are less desirable and unimproved for decades. New research and new targeted therapies are thus needed.
We are very sad to learn of the passing of Dr. Stephen Qualman, a pioneer in pediatric sarcoma research and a advocate of multi-disciplinary collaborations. Steve's own 13 month battle with pancreatic cancer is said to have ended Saturday.
This weekend was the Fifteenth Anniversary Scott Carter's Heroes Big Show and Golf Classic to benefit Children's Cancer Research. These events in Tulsa, sponsored by the Scott Carter Foundation, benefit CureSearch research fellowships as well as a research fellowship in our laboratory. Koichi Nishijo, MD, PhD, was introduced as the 2008 Scott Carter Fellow at GCCRI. Koichi and I had a lot of fun meeting the organizers and participants of this event. Scott's parents, Mike and Paula, brother Cason and sister Liz, and grandparents Paul and Crys (and numerous family friends and advocates) are nothing short of tireless in their dedication to this cause. Their support of me as a Scott Carter Fellow in 1999 - 2000 made it possible for me to begin my research career in the laboratory of 2007 Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi, and the project that the Scott Carter Foundation sponsored is featured in Mario's Nobel prize lecture. I am deeply grateful to the Foundation's ongoing support to train new scientists in the pursuit of better treatments for childhood cancer.
We're excited to welcome medical student Imran Aslam to our laboratory. Imran graduated from the University of Houston in May 2008 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. He has been interested in medicine from a young age, having had the unique opportunity to shadow Dr. Jonathan C. Trent at his MD Anderson clinic during high school and college. Imran joined Dr. Trent's sarcoma research laboratory as a college junior. He is grateful to his mentor who allowed him the privilege to work in such a dynamic, focused lab environment. During this time Imran's project was to evaluate the role of the cytokine receptor CXCR4 in small cell sarcoma. Imran is currently a first year medical student at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and will continue his research training through the MD with Distinction in Research program as a member of our laboratory.
Congratulations to Eri and her co-authors Koichi and Mandy on the publication today of their study, "PDGFR-A is a Therapeutic Target in Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma". Our paper was published in the advanced online edition of the journal Oncogene. This study reveals a very promising new category of non-chemotherapy drugs to try in this disease, as we have done in our mouse model. Moving our results to the clinic will require close attention and some further study of how tumors become resistant to this drug class in about 1/3 of cases. These follow-up studies are currently being undertaken by Corrine and Eri. Further description of our study is given on Newswise.
Brian P. Rubin, MD, PhD is our pathologist collaborator and scientific colleague. Dr. Rubin is Associate Professor of Anatomic Pathology and Director of Soft Tissue Pathology at the
H.R.1553, the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act, has been signed by President Bush, authorizing $30 million each year for five years for childhood cancer clinical trials, education and a population-based national database. This is a huge step forward in the effort to make all childhood cancers curable. For more information, view the CureSearch story.
Yesterday was a lot of fun presenting our patent-pending animal imaging technology at the Hands On Invention event accompanying the "Genius of Leonardo" exhibit at the Witte Museum. This event was sponsored by Texas Public Radio. The best part was to see how interesting the young kids were... and to show that geometry and algebra could really help out down the road for them if they liked this sort of science & technology.
We are grateful to the Scott Carter Foundation for sponsoring Dr. Koichi Nishijo, MD, PhD, as the 2008 Scott Carter Fellow at GCCRI. Scott Carter combined his love of sports and sports memorabilia collecting with a passion for accelerating childhood cancer research. Sadly, Scott lost his battle against osteosarcoma in 1993 at the age of 13. The Scott Carter Foundation continues his mission of promoting childhood cancer research through fundraisers and the sharing of Scott's collection, which is currently on display at Disney's Wide World of Sports. We feel privileged to contribute to Scott's goal of finding new treatments for childhood cancers, particularly pediatric sarcomas.
New imaging techniques combined with genetics research is providing scientists with an entirely new way to tackle cancer and birth defects. This cover article art was created by Lisa's husband, Derek Mayhew. 
An article about Beverly, Aislynn, Corrine, and Charles' use of ordinary chicken eggs as a platform for screening drugs already on the market (or experimental laboratory compounds) to see if they are active against children’s muscle cancers and brain tumors. This work is being funded by a 2 year Innovation Award from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Click here to read more.
Will Sansom, "MicroCT of skeleton can ID even the subtlest birth defects", HSC News (UTHSCSA), May 8 2008 [interview]
We would like to Welcome Michelle Brady to the GCCRI as the new Technical Director of the GCCRI Mouse Histology Facility. This resource facility, managed jointly by Michelle and Charles, provides specialized pathology resources for preclinical mouse models of childhood cancers. Michelle brings to this enterprise over 23 years professional experience in Histology and Immunohistochemistry. We are so lucky to have Michelle on our team!
Charles' mentor visits our university.
The Greehey Children's Cancer Research Institute is an example of a new movement in architecture and scientific culture.
