Cancer Center Update is sent to Cancer Center members and staff every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Please submit items to Sandi Sherman, sherm019@umn.edu, by noon the previous Friday.

---

In This Issue

Today's Cancer Center Seminar

News

• Members in the news
• New member
• Registration for Cancer Center Spring Poster Session and Symposium opens April 2

Education and Events

• March 21: Cancer Biology Journal Club
• March 21: Center for Drug Design seminar
• March 22: Division of Pediatric Epidemiology and Clinical Research recruitment seminar
• March 23: Department of Pediatrics recruitment seminar
• April 14: Survivorship Series: A Focus on Fertility

Cancer Center Program Meetings

• March 23: Cancer Biology Research Club
• March 26: BMT Conference

Grant Information and Announcements

• Cancer Center Internal Grants Program
• American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant

---

Today's Cancer Center Seminar

Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 12-1 p.m., 450 CCRB
Investigation of the cytokine-cancer connection
Michael A. Caligiuri, M.D., Director, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center; Chair, Division of Hematology and Oncology, OSU College of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Internal Medicine; John L. Marakas Nationwide Insurance Enterprise Foundation Chair in Cancer Research

Host: Bruce Blazar, M.D.

A peek at next week's seminar:
Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 12-1 p.m., 450 CCRB
New approaches to Sleeping Beauty models of cancer
Adam Dupuy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa

Host: David Largaespada, Ph.D.

For a complete schedule visit the Cancer Center Web site Seminar Series listing.

Back to top

News

Members in the news

Daniel Mulrooney, M.D., was featured on WCCO's Fairview on Call radio program on Sunday, March 18. He discussed childhood cancer survivorship and the upcoming "Survivorship Series: A Focus on Fertility" educational conference on Saturday, April 14, 2007. To listen to the program, visit the WCCO Audio/Podcast Web page and look under "Specialty Programming" in the lower right column.

John Ohlfest, Ph.D., is featured in a KARE 11 TV spot for the Randy Shaver Celebrity Golf Classic, an annual event that raises money for cancer research. View the spot.

Back to top

New Member

Stephen C. Schmechel, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Program area of interest: Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer
Clinical focus: Urologic/prostate cancer
Area of scientific interest: Development of novel molecular tests to improve prostate cancer diagnostics, and to better predict and improve long-term clinical outcome following diagnosis.

Back to top

Registration opens for Cancer Center Spring Poster Session and Symposium April 2

Online registration for the Eighth Annual Spring Poster Session and Symposium will open Monday, April 2, 2007 with a final deadline of April 27, 2007. This event is sponsored by the Cancer Center Core Facilities and will be held Wednesday, May 17, 2007, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Students, staff, postdocs and PIs are invited to participate by presenting a poster. The research presented in the poster must include the use of a Cancer Center Cores Facility.

For more information, visit the Cancer Center Web site, or contact Sabine Fritz at 4-7151, fritz017@umn.edu.

Back to top

Education and Events

Cancer Biology Journal Club

Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 12-1 p.m., 5-122 MCB
Christopher Pennell, Ph.D., will discuss the paper "Control of macroautophagy by calcium, calmodulin-dependent kinase Kkinase-b, and Bcl-2," Høyer-Hansen M, et al., Mol Cell, 2007;25:193—205.

The Cancer Biology Journal Club is held every Wednesday. A complete schedule is available at the MICaB Web site. For more information contact: Sonja Johnson (john4368@umn.edu) or Rachel Bergerson (sapl0005@umn.edu).

Back to top

Center for Drug Design seminar

Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m., 1-450G Moos Tower
Inactivation of DNA repair alkyltransferase by pseudosubstrates
Anthony Pegg, Ph.D., Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Penn State University

Back to top

Division of Pediatric Epidemiology and Clinical Research recruitment seminar

Thursday, March 22, 2007, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., 450 CCRB
Methodological considerations in epidemiologic studies: Applications to childhood cancer studies
Anne Jurek, Ph.D., Research Associate, Division of Pediatric Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University of Minnesota

Dr. Jurek is a candidate for assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Epidemiology and Clinical Research.

Back to top

Department of Pediatrics recruitment seminar

Friday, March 23, 2007, 1-2 p.m., 450 CCRB
Tumor-promoting properties of stromal fibroblasts in invasive human breast carcinomas
Akira Orimo, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Biology, Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Orimo is a faculty candidate in molecular oncology in the Department of Pediatrics. For more information contact Arlys Clements, 612-626-2961.

Back to top

Survivorship Series: 'A Focus on Fertility'

Saturday, April 14, 2007, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota, 200 Oak Street S.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota
In this free educational conference on childhood cancer survivorship, learn about fertility and relationships after cancer from experts in the long-term effects of cancer therapy. Learn more and register.

Back to top

Cancer Center Program Meetings

Cancer Biology Research Club

Friday, March 23, 2007, 3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m., 450 CCRB
The role of STAT5 in B cell development and pre-B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia
Mark Willette, Farrar lab

For a complete schedule visit the Web site.

Back to top

BMT Conference

Monday, March 26, 2007, 1:15-2:15 p.m., 450 CCRB
Attending meeting.

For a complete schedule visit the Web site.

Back to top

Grant Information and Announcements

2007 Cancer Center Internal Grants Program

Deadline: April 16, 2007, 4:30 p.m.

The Cancer Center announces the availability of four internal grant programs. The goal of these programs is to foster the development of and provide support for novel research ideas that focus on a problem in cancer. In turn, the Cancer Center expects that internal funding will lead to nationally peer reviewed funding. The programs and their objectives are as follows:

• Brainstorm Awards: The objective of the Brainstorm Awards is to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations encompassing novel, hypothesis-driven studies of cancer or a cancer-related topic. The proposed project must be a joint, collaborative effort by at least two Cancer Center members from different programs or different disciplines, and must represent a new collaborative proposal.
• Cancer Population Sciences Awards: The objective of the Population Sciences Awards is to foster innovative research in Population Sciences which has the potential to form the basis of future research initiatives. Applicants must be members of the Cancer Center.
• Translational Breast Cancer Research Awards: The objective of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Award is to support research in the biology, prevention, detection, diagnosis, and/or treatment of breast cancer. Applicants must be members of the Cancer Center.
• Translational Sarcoma Cancer Research Award: The objective of the Translational Sarcoma Cancer Research Award is to support research in the biology, prevention, detection, diagnosis and/or treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Applicants must be members of the Cancer Center. This is a new award in 2007.

Specific instructions including appropriate budgetary requests may be found at the Cancer Center web site.

All proposals must be hand-delivered to 754 CCRB addressed to the attention of Kamala Upadhyaya. Applicants will be notified of the review outcome in early June. Awards will be made for one year, with an anticipated activation date of July 1, 2007.

Questions related to these announcements should be directed to Maggie Thompson, Preaward Services Coordinator, at 612-624-0650, thom2266@umn.edu; or Kamala Upadhyaya, at 612-626-5326, upadh004@umn.edu.

Back to top

American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant

Deadline: April 16, 2007
Amount: Up to $30,000
This grant is for assistant professors who have no independent national funding and are engaged in cancer-related research. Cancer-related research includes genetic mechanisms of cancer, molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis, development of novel cancer therapeutic models and translational research, cancer immunology and immunotherapy. Applications may be obtained by contacting LeAnn Micek, 612-626-1926, micek003@umn.edu.

Back to top