The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI

Friday, March 26, 2010

Spring COG meeting in Los Angeles

The Children's Oncology Group Spring 2010 meeting was held in Los Angeles March 24 - 26, with our participation being in the Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Preclinical Testing and CNS (brain tumor) sessions. Research by Jinu and Anu was very well received at the Tuesday sarcoma session in Charles' presentation of, "Preclinical Rhabdomyosarcoma Studies in Genetically-Engineered Mice". These meetings are fabulous for establishing new treatment paradigms that bridge basic science and clinical trials.

Molecularly targeted therapies are generating a lot of excitement.

Friday, March 12, 2010

It pays to have a sense of humor

Recently Laura went to a conference for mouse colony management and came back with some souvenirs. Oddly, they seem to have a life of their own. It's certainly nice to have light moments every once in a while.

Congratulations to Melinda & Corrine!

Congratulations to alumni graduate students, Melinda Garcia and Corrine Chua for their nominations today for the 2010 Armand J. Guarino Award for Academic Excellence in Master of Science Studies! Corrine and Melinda both completed their Masters degree from our laboratory in December 2009.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

with thanks to Michelle

Just a short note of appreciation for our tireless colleague, Michelle Brady, the technical director of our GCCRI Histology Facility. Michelle provides fantastic support to our laboratory's research, often on short notice, and always with kindness and grace. We are grateful to have Michelle as a colleague.

Monday, March 1, 2010

National Center for Integrative Biological Computing

Congratulations to our colleagues at the Scientific Imaging and Computing Institute at the University of Utah on their very well prepared site visit for the National Center for Integrative Biological Computing. Our proposed collaborative project for this NIH P41 grant uses shape analysis to evaluate disease progression in medulloblastoma. This is a truly unique team of gifted computer scientists, and it is a privilege to be able to work together.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Welcoming Sheila Hampton to our Lab

Sheila comes to us from the Institute for Drug Development at the CTRC where she performed preclinical drug testing and therapeutic cell testing studies. Sheila earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology from West Texas A&M University. Her future plans are to attend the Cytogenetics Program at UTHSCSA in the Fall.

[ top right: Sheila diligently working through mouse path slides. picture courtesy of photographer and labmate, Laura Nelon :) ]

Saturday, February 6, 2010

in appreciation of Tony

We'd like to acknowledge and thank Antonio (Tony) Dennie, Computer Support Specialist at GCCRI, for all that he does regularly to keep our research program going. It seems there is never a problem too large for Tony to tackle. We sure do appreciate all your expertise and long hours, Tony!

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.