The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI

Sunday, July 27, 2008

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.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

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."

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

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.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Laura Hampton joins our team!

Please join us in welcoming Laura Hampton. Laura will be joining our laboratory as a research assistant with primary responsibilities in mouse husbandry and preclinical therapeutics. She comes to us with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology from West Texas A&M University. She has undergraduate research experience in microbial genetics and wheat genetics, clinical work experience in EMG and EEG, and medical diagnostic experience in veterinary genetics. Her future goals may include graduate school at UTHSCSA and a project in our lab.

We are so excited to have her on the team. Welcome, Laura!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

New techniques making advances in cancer research

New imaging techniques combined with genetics research is providing scientists with an entirely new way to tackle cancer and birth defects. This cover article art was created by Lisa's husband, Derek Mayhew.

Click here to read more.

Wendy Rigby. "New techniques making advances in cancer research", KENS Channel 5 News (CBS Affiliate, San Antonio plus CBS National Newsfeed), May 23, 2008. [interview, video]

Monday, May 12, 2008

Eggs, Ingenuity enlisted in batter on cancer in kids

An article about Beverly, Aislynn, Corrine, and Charles' use of ordinary chicken eggs as a platform for screening drugs already on the market (or experimental laboratory compounds) to see if they are active against children’s muscle cancers and brain tumors. This work is being funded by a 2 year Innovation Award from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Click here to read more.

Cindy Tumiel. "Eggs, ingenuity enlisted in batter on cancer in kids", San Antonio Express News, Metro Section first page, May 12, 2008.

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.