Conquer Childhood Cancer Act signed by the President

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.

(photo sent by CureSearch)

Texas Public Radio - Witte Museum Event

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.

Team Sarcoma San Antonio Event 2008

This morning at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio we had over 30 participants in the Team Sarcoma run/walk. It was a cooler than average morning for South Texas, fortunately! In attendence were sarcoma survivors, researchers and clinical care providers. This event is one of dozens internationally that raise awareness for Sarcoma. Preliminary reports indicate that there were over 8,000 people worldwide involved in the 2008 Team Sarcoma Initiative’s International Sarcoma Awareness Week! These events are coordinated by the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative. All proceeds benefit sarcoma research. Kudos to organizers Jinu Abraham and Mandy McCleish from our lab but especially colleagues Denice Jimenez and Kim Warshauer at the UTHSCSA Development Office who made this event possible. The event just in San Antonio raised $440 for sarcoma research. We hope we can get even more people involved for the event next year to raise awareness about Sarcoma.

Press Release from the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative (Liddy's Dad):
8,000 People Join the Team Sarcoma Initiative to Fight a Rare Cancer
"From its humble beginnings in 2003, when seven people who called themselves "Team Sarcoma" biked 200 miles in Louisiana, the Team Sarcoma Initiative has become an international movement. More than 8,000 people worldwide participated in this year's Initiative, surpassing the 3,400 who participated last year. Events in 14 countries were hosted by individuals, advocacy groups and medical centers seeking to raise awareness of sarcoma, a cancer that affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide."

Recognizing Irma Gonzalez

Our laboratory would like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of GCCRI staff member Irma Gonzalez. She supports our laboratory's research in so many ways, always meeting any challenge with a solution and a smile. thank you, Irma!

Koichi named 2008 Scott Carter Fellow at GCCRI

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.

about Koichi Nishijo, MD, PhD
Dr. Koichi Nishijo began his postdoctoral research fellowship in Dr. Keller's laboratory in April 2006. Dr. Nishijo completed his M.D. and Ph.D. from Kyoto University, Japan. During his PhD course, he studied the biology of osteosarcoma under instruction of Dr. Junya Toguchida at Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University. Dr. Nishijo is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon with 7 years clinical experience in Japan. Dr. Nishijo's work primary research interests are the in vivo mechanisms of sarcoma development and progression. As a member of the Keller laboratory, he will study the process of rhabdomyosarcoma metastasis. Dr. Nishijo's future goal is to become an independent physician scientist in the field of musculoskeletal oncology.