In Appreciation of Fran

We sincerely thank our administrative partner, Frances "Fran" Melton, for her assistance in our research efforts, particularly the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative. For all those weekends working tirelessly to make it possible to develop novel new drugs for rhabdomyosarcoma & medulloblastoma, we convey to Fran our deepest gratitude. -- The Keller Lab and GCCRI

[upper right: Fran over the holidays in Phoenix. What an interesting sculpture! ]

PPTI receives its first contribution for Drug Testing in Rhabdomyosarcoma

We thank our anonymous donor for a kind $500 contribution towards the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative, with the specific goal of advancing new treatments for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.

For more information about the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative and our grass-roots effort to advance research in childhood cancers, email Charles at kellerc2@uthscsa.edu .

[right: this graphic design and implemented by Charles Keller and David Rodriguez.]

Welcoming Anu!

We are excited to welcome Anuradha "Anu" Soundararajan to our research team. Anu obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Madras in 2000, where she was recognized with the award for Best Outgoing Student for her college. After earning a Masters degree in medical physics from Anna University then professional experience as a Medical Physicist at the Cancer Institute in India, Anu pursued and recently completed a PhD in Medical Diagnostic Physics from the Department of Radiology at UTHSCSA. William “Bill” Phillips and Beth Goins were mentors to Anu, whose doctoral thesis project related to Chemo-Radionuclide Therapy with 186-Re labeled Liposomal Doxorubicin in combination with Radiofrequency Ablation for Effective Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer. Anu brings specific new strength to our research program in the area of Molecular Imaging. Her long term career goals include applied academic research for cancer using genetically engineered mouse models, imaging, and image-guided therapies. Welcome, Anu!

Our Sincerest Thanks to Mei

We sincerely thank consultant Mei Zhang for our tutorial on advanced mouse ultrasound imaging this past week. Mei is a clinical and preclinical ultrasonographer with a special gift as a teacher. Her thoughtful on site training makes it possible for us to better determine the response of childhood rhabdomyosarcomas to novel targeted therapies. We are so grateful to you, Mei. Charles, Aoife and the Keller Lab Team.

CIBC Workshop

Charles and Suresh attended a workshop for the Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute of the University of Utah this past week. Our lab is a Tier 1 collaborator for the NIH/NCRR grant that supports the CIBC (P41RR012553). We are excited about the tools made available by CIBC that enhance our study of childhood cancers, particularly Seg3D and Jens Krüger's new ImageVis3D. Staying an extra day, Suresh also mastered snowboarding... a great trip altogether!

Suresh's Paper accepted to 'Molecular Imaging'

Congratulations to Suresh who muscle injury paper was accepted just yesterday to Molecular Imaging. This paper on near-infrared imaging of tissue damage and repair was also co-authored by Carlo Martinez of the Shireman lab. Stay tuned for potential cover art!

[shown above right: cobra of the genus from which the cardiotoxin venom is derived that is used experimentally to create very small amounts of injury in muscle. Dataset from digimorph.org, and rendering by Suresh Prajapati]

[ UPDATE: (3/5/2008) Suresh's paper is now published! ]

Tohru's work with the Nishihara lab is accepted to 'Differentiation'

Congratulations to Tohru, whose work on the muscle microenvironment was accepted today to the journal, Differentiation. Drs. Ishiguro, Yamanouchi, and Nishihara co-author this exciting work. We are excited to have Tohru as part of our team, especially as we delve deeper into muscle stem cell (satellite cell) biology which underlies the formation of certain types of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Stay tuned for another announcement once Tohru's paper is published!