See also our related blog for the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative.

Friday, September 30, 2011

ABC2 Summit in Sausalito

The last 2 days leaders in glioblastoma research have met in a special, collaboration-promoting summit sponsored by Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2).  Highlights include understanding the influence of metabolism on glioblastoma tumor cell fitness, the mechanism of action of thalidomide, and more.  By far, the best aspect of this project was the community involvement (hence, accountability for collaboration) and the industry - academic interface that this environment creates.  A very significant industry interest was expressed in DIPG (pontine gliomas).  More news to come...

Many thanks to Max & David of ABC2 for creating such a rich environment for collaboration.  To learn about the life of Dan Case and the creation of ABC2, click here.
 

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Rhabdomyosarcoma Research presented in Ascona

We are grateful to Denis Guttridge (Ohio State), David Glass (Novartis) and Markus Ruegg (University of Basel) for the opportunity to present our work on the epigenetic determinates of rhabdomyosarcoma at the 2011 International Conference on Molecular Mechanisms of Muscle Growth and Wasting in Health and Disease.  Our laboratory's work was very well received, and new collaborations were established that take us into new, exciting multidisciplinary areas.  
  
[ The conference was sited at Centro Stefano Franscini in Ascona, Switzerland (pictured). ]

Friday, September 9, 2011

Personalized Medicine Talk with Georgetown Colleagues

We are grateful to Dr. Aykut Uren and colleagues including Todd Waldman and Jeff Toretsky for the opportunity to present our research and approaches to personalized cancer therapy as part of the  the Georgetown University Hospital/Lombardi Cancer Center visiting professorship series.  The ideas exchanged bring both groups closer to our goal of improving survival for the 1 in 5 children for which current therapy is yet not sufficient for long term survival.    

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Update on the Personalized Cancer Therapy Trial - for Canine Osteosarcoma

Congratulations to Lara on an excellent research-in-progress presentation at the Annual OHSU-DCH Pediatric Fellows Research Conference.  This Phase II clinical trial for dogs with osteosarcoma opened 2 weeks ago.  The early success of this collaboration is a large part attributable to the strong collaboration with Dr. Bernard Seguin at Oregon State University Veterinary Hospital and lab members and alumni, Jinu and (especially) Nicolle, respectively.