Congratulations to Tohru, whose paper on pituitary tumors was just accepted to Genes & Cancer. Tohru showed that a certain protein (ie, homeobox transcription factor) defines a newly discovered type of progenitor cells after birth that give rise to pituitary tumors. (yes, actually, this was a fortuitous discovery... as we were originally trying to investigate childhood muscle and cerebellar tumors). Tohru's work fits well with the recent important discovery of pituitary stem cells by Gleiberman and colleagues. The publication of our work in Genes & Cancer is particularly appropriate because of this journal's focus on the interplay of development and cancer biology. Our thanks to UTHSCSA and extramural collaborators, who include pathologist Brian Rubin at the Cleveland Clinic, Bernd Scheithauer of the Mayo Clinic, and Wilmon Grant and Daniel Marks at OHSU.
[ above right: histology from a new pituitary tumor mouse model;
below right: microCT-based Virtual Histology of a pituitary tumor. ]
[ update June 6, 2010: Tohru's paper is now in print, Genes Cancer 2010;1 388-402 ]
