The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI

Saturday, May 6, 2006

U. experts help find birth defects' causes

This was an article featured in Deseret Morning News. ...Using a method they call "microCT-based virtual histology," researchers can get a detailed — down to about one-tenth of a human hair width — look at a mouse embryo, inside and out. The U. team turned them into 3D images, eliminating the long process of killing the embryo, embedding it in wax and then thin-slicing, staining the slides and studying it with a microscope. Click here to read more.

Lois M. Collin. "U. experts help find birth defects' causes." Deseret Morning News, front page, Saturday May 6, 2006. [interview, figure]

Monday, May 1, 2006

Amanda McCleish (UTSA Undergraduate Student)

Amanda is a presenter at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students held at Austin, Texas November 2007.

Picture Pefect: New imaging technique stands to improve research of childhood musculoskeletal cancers

An article featured in the Mission Magazine telling how scientists have dramatically increased the usefulness of an imaging technique called micro-CT Imaging. Click here to read more.

Will Sansom, "Picture Perfect: New imaging technique stands to improve research of childhood musculoskeletal cancers," Mission magazine (UTHSCSA), April / May 2006, p.10, [interview, figure]

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Mice, Cat scans aid child cancer research

This was an article featured in The San Antonio Express News, describing how with micro CT scans scientists can create a large, three-dimensional computer image of embryos to study. ..."We take an embryo that is intact but we can use the computer to do a cutaway to view to the interior structures," said Keller, a pediatric oncologist at the Children's Cancer Research Institute who is studying brain and muscle tumors. Click here to read more.

Cindy Tumiel. "Mice CAT scans aid child cancer research." San Antonio Express News, Metro Section, first page. [interview, figure]

Friday, April 28, 2006

microCT-based Virtual Histology

John T. Johnson, Mark S. Hansen, Isabel Wu, Lindsey J. Healy, Christopher R. Johnson, Greg M. Jones, Mario R. Capecchi, Charles Keller. “Virtual Histology of Transgenic Mouse Embryos for High-Throughput Phenotyping,” PLoS Genetics, 2006, 2(4)e61 [COVER ARTICLE] [PubMed UID 16683035]

Comment in: Magdalena Skipper. No Mickey-Mouse phenomics. Nature Reviews | Genetics. 2006; Volume 7:409
Comment in: Research Highlights. Nature Methods, July 2006; Volume 3 Number 7 Page 497
Comment in: Susannah Veith. “New ‘virtual’ histology method bolsters visualization of mouse embryos.” Biophotonics International, July 2006, pp. 24-25
Comment in: staff writer. Virtual slicing gives faster testing. New Scientist (Special Reports; Tech), 9 May 2006, Issue 2550, Page 21
Comment in: Julian Josephson. Mouse Embryos in 3-D. Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) – a journal of the NIEHS, October 2006; Volume 114 Number 10 Pages A596-A599
Comment in: Dennis Meredith. Better than Slice-and-Dice. HHMI Bulletin, February 2007; Volume 20(1)

Saturday, April 1, 2006

Koichi Nishijo (Postdoctoral Fellow, starts 04/01/2006)

Koichi recieved Alex's Lemonade Stand Young Investigator Award for his Application: Mediators of Metastasis in Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma ($60,000 awarded over 2 years, 7/01/06 - 06/30/06).

He also won a poster prize ($500), Genomic Integrity and Tumor Development Program Retreat.

He also is an Invitee-Attendee to the 2006 AACR "Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology" Workshop.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Growth Factors in Rhabdomyosarcoma

Mary Blandford, Frederic G. Barr, James C. Lynch, R. Lor Randall, Stephen J. Qualman, Charles Keller. “Rhabdomyosarcomas Utilize Developmental Myogenic Growth Factors for Disease Advantage,” Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 2006 Mar; 46(3):329-38 [PubMed UID 16261596]

You Can Participate in our Novel Therapeutics Studies !

One would like to think that tangibly better treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma, medulloblastoma and other childhood cancers can be found in a matter of years, instead of tens of years. Finding new treatments starts with research, perhaps even a new research approach to identifying effective new treatments. The Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute focuses on finding molecules in childhood cancers that can be directly turned off or on by drugs so that the tumor stops growing. Behind our novel approach is the use of genetically-engineered mice. Our Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative uses mice modified from before birth so that at a certain age, and in a certain tissue, the same mutations found in a child’s cancer are activated in the mouse. These special mouse models of childhood cancer can be used to test a treatment to see whether the tumor growth and spread (metastasis) can be reversed. The specific aspect of these mice having normal immune systems is a real plus, too, because white blood cells play an important role in how tumors evolve and respond to therapy.

Our program is designed around community participation. Through the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute, you can contribute directly to this grass-roots initiative. Donations through small gifts or grants will assist in studying compounds that may be effective in treating such childhood cancers as alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, or medulloblastoma (the alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma model was featured by Dr. Keller's long time collaborator and former mentor, 2007 Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi, in his Nobel Prize lecture {see 16 minutes onward}.)

For additional information regarding supporting this program please contact Charles Keller at charles@cc-tdi.org. Results obtained through these studies will be shared with the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, as well as the Children’s Oncology Group, which designs clinical trials for childhood cancer.