The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Welcoming Lena

Elena Wisely will be joining our research team at GCCRI for her 2009 Summer rotation. Lena is an incoming MD/PhD student at UTHSCSA and plans to pursue translational biomedical research. She is a graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos, where she spent more than 2 years in Dr. Joseph Koke's lab investigating the role of the FOXP2 transcription factor responsible for regulating human language development and acquisition. Lena, welcome to our team!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Aislynn Graduates!

We couldn't be more proud of Aislynn Samano who graduated today with a Masters Degree from UTHSCSA. Aislynn's thesis encompassed a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluating drug efficacy in genetically-engineered mouse models of medulloblastoma. The results of her study are especially important to academic and pharmaceutical approaches to preclinical therapeutics. Important contributors included lab members Eri Taniguchi (alumnist now), Sachiko Ohshima and Aoife Kilcoyne as well as imaging collaborators Osamu Togao, Ai-Ling Lin, Duff Davis, and Tim Duong and engineering collaborators Brent Nowak and Thomas Whitney. We plan to submit a manuscript on Aislynn's exciting work later this month. Congratulations, Aislynn!

[ Update (7/15/09): Exciting News! Aislynn has been selected as the recipient of the 2009 Armand J. Guarino Award for Academic Excellence in Master of Science Studies !! ]

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Koichi featured by ALSF News

Koichi has been featured in the "newsroom" of the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation website as a past recipient of an ALSF career development award. To see the ALSF news spotlight, click here.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Sachiko Wins Poster Presentation

Congratulations to Sachiko, who won 1st Place in the poster competition for the 7th Annual Center for Biomedical Neuroscience Retreat today. Sachiko's poster explores the role of receptor proteins as therapeutic targets in metastatic medulloblastoma. way to go, Sachiko!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Welcoming Ashwathi!

Ashwathi Mohan will be joining our research team as a GCCRI 2009 Summer intern. Ashwathi is currently an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University and is a graduate of the Northside Health Careers High School in San Antonio. After completing her Molecular and Cell Biology Major and a Classics (Latin) minor, she plans on pursuing a combined M.D. and Ph.D. Her goal is to both practice medicine and continue biomedical research.

[ 06/09/2009: Congratulations to Ashwathi, who was recently selected as a University Scholar scholarship from Texas A&M University. This prestigious award is based on academic achievement and the intent to pursue postgraduate studies. ]

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Strategic Planning Feature in NCURA

Thanks to our colleague Cory Hallam, our laboratory retreat last month has been featured in a essay and case study on Bringing Strategic Planning to the Research Lab for the National Council of University Research Administrator’s magazine (as a “Feature”). The article is written by Cory (Assistant Vice President of Commercialization at UTSA) and co-authored by Charles. The strategy, however, is a true lab team effort. To see the NCURA Magazine feature, click here and go to page 42.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

KENS TV Coverage (muscle stem cells)

We sincerely thank Wendy Rigby of KENS Channel 5 for her coverage of our recent muscle stem cell publication. It was thoughtful of Wendy and her camerman, Richard, to have included so much of our team in the story. To see the local video, click here. For the CBS national link, click here.

[ to right: Mandy with mus musculus (a house mouse) ]

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.