The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI

Monday, July 25, 2005

Molecular Imaging: Companies set out to sharpen the in vivo perspective with new machines and novel contrast agents

This was an article published in the magazine C&EN Volume 83, Number 30.

Vivien Marx. Chemical & Engineering News. 07/25/05, 83(30) [interview, figure]

Friday, July 1, 2005

Contrast Agents improve CT imaging of the liver and vasculature

This was an article published in Science Magazine Biophotonics International. ...Investigators also have used this agent for vascular imaging, to solve problems where clinical contrast agents fall short. For example, a group at the Children's Cancer Research Institute of the Univeristy of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio uses volumetric x-ray CT to study transgenic mouse models of solid tumors such as the childhood muscle cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, focusing on imaging of tumor vascular networks. This modality offers high spatial resolution and improved signal-to-noise ratio over previous generations of nonvolumetric small-animal CT scanners, but the scan time is relatively long, leading to clearance of clinical iodinated contrast agents tens of minutes before the stain is completed. The vasuclar agent helps address this issue. Various formulations of the agent allow medium and long blood-pool times, easily permitting 20- to 24-minute live animal scans at a 93-um resolution, "so venules and arterioles can be resolved," said researcher Charles Keller. Also, it features a lower iodine content than clinical contrast agents, making it easier to identify the vessels for computer-based image rendering and sementation.

Gary Boas. Biophotonics International, July 2005. pp.16-17 [interview, figure]

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Ming Jung Cho (Postdoctoral Fellow, 5/15/05 - present)

Min Jung Cho is an Invitee-Attendee to the 2006 AACR "Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology" Workshop.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

The Life and Career of Mario Capecchi - Part 3

In the 1980's, University of Utah geneticist Mario Capecchi devloped gene targeting technology, which allows scientists to tailor mutation in specific genes. Researchers around the world use it to manipulate mouse DNA. With this tool, scientists at the Unviersity of Utah have recently created a mouse with a deadly form of childhood muscle cancer. Sheri Quinn reports on how this new mouse model might help fight the disease. This is Part 3 of a 5-part series.

National Public Radio (NPR) 01/12/05.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma mouse model revealed

Charles Keller, Ben Arenkiel, Nabeel El-Bardeesy, Cheryl Coffin, Ronald DePinho, Mario Capecchi. “Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcomas in Conditional Pax3:Fkhr Mice: Cooperativity of Ink4a/ARF and Trp53 Loss of Function,” Genes & Development, 18(21) 2614-26, November 2004 [PubMed UID 15489287]

Monday, November 15, 2004

Pax3:Fkhr biology in Embryogenesis

Charles Keller, Mark S. Hansen, Cheryl Coffin, Mario Capecchi. “Pax3:Fkhr interferes with Embryonic Pax3 and Pax7 Function: Implications for Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma Cell of Origin,” Genes & Development, 18(21) 2608-13, November 2004 [PubMed UID 15520281]

Comment in: Nicola McCarthy. Divining forks for developing tumours. Nature Reviews | Cancer. 2004; Volume 4:835

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Muscling in on a Deadly Cancer

This was an article pusblished at the University of Utah News and Public Relations. In a pair of new studies, University of Utah scientists took early but significant steps to fight a particularly deadly childhood muscle cancer by identifying some of the genetic events that cause the disease and then engineering mice that develop the tumors. The genetic events might be targets for new drugs that could be tested on the mice. Click here to read more.

Lee Siegel. Press Release 10/14/2004.

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.