Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota
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Researchers and Staff
July 24, 2007
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.
Please note: Items for July 31 Cancer Center Update should be submitted to Gina Kennedy (kenne069@umn.edu) by noon, July 27.
In This Issue
Funding News and Opportunities
Message from the Director
As I noted in my "State of The Masonic Cancer Center" talk in June, our field is moving toward treating cancer by targeting specific molecules and pathways relevant to cancer cells. This is a fundamental change in the way we've treated cancer. In the past, we've really targeted only one biological pathway: DNA replication and cell division.
How did this change happen? In a nutshell: the academic community identified new cancer targets. Drug companies paid attention to this research, and created and tested drugs designed to block the target. A collaboration between academic communities and drug companies performed the clinical trials, demonstrating the benefit of these new drugs and targets. On the strength of the data, many new drugs have received FDA approval and the pace of approval for these new targeted therapies exceeds the approval rate of new cytotoxic drugs.
One important consequence of this process is the need for academic centers to collaborate with their partners in industry. Academic centers discover, but do not manufacture, drugs and drug targets. Drug companies are not medical centers, do not treat patients with cancer, and cannot perform clinical trials on their own. A partnership must be formed to translate our ideas into real therapies.
Certainly, there are many concerns about this type of collaboration. Recently, the New York Times mined Minnesota databases and linked drug company payments to Minnesota Board of Medical Practice disciplinary records to demonstrate an overlap of names on both lists (See the newspaper's Web site [Note: you may have to register to view this article]). The St. Paul Pioneer Press also addressed this issue, suggesting that drug company payments to physicians have the potential to compromise quality of care and represent a substantial conflict of interest. Thus, the media reports on the topics have been generally negative, claiming that drug company payments are bad and only serve to influence the prescribing practices of physicians.
I believe that the academic community must be allowed to contribute to the development of new drugs. After all, the University and the federal government funded the work that led to the development of most of the new drugs. Academic faculty know more about the drug targets than the makers of the drug. We have the knowledge, based on preclinical data from our labs, on how the clinical trial should be performed. Instead of compromising the quality of care, I believe that collaboration between the academic community and pharmaceutical companies must be pursued to appropriately use these new drugs in our practice. We need to communicate to the public that this collaboration has positive benefits for all Minnesotans, and not allow negative media reports to dominate. The academic community is indeed trying to influence the drug companies' development of the things we discovered, not the other way around!
Should this collaboration be free for the drug companies? Should limits be placed on our faculty for the type and amount of consulting? Should we completely prohibit any contact between "for profit" companies and University faculty? If compensation is offered, how should it be accepted? Dean Powell is convening a task force to address these important issues. It's a big topic, but for those of us involved in cancer research, we must maintain our primary focus: the defeat of cancer.
-Doug Yee, M.D.
Special Cancer Center Seminar
Tuesday, July 24, 2007, 12-1 p.m., 450 CCRB
Organization and assembly of regulatory machinery in nuclear microenvironments: Implications for biological control and cancer
Gary S. Stein, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
Host: Ashok K. Saluja, Ph.D.
News
Farrar receives Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award
Immunology Program member Michael Farrar, Ph.D., was one of 13 recipients of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award. According to the society's Web site, this competitive award is given to "highly qualified investigators who have shown a capacity for independent, sustained original investigation in the field of leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma." Recipients are funded for five years in the amount of $110,000 per year. Farrar's award, which runs from July 2007 through June 2012, was given on the basis of his studies of the transcription factor STAT5 and pre-B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia.
Immunology Program members to speak at Immunology Congress in Rio de Janeiro
Four Immunology Program members will be speaking at the International Congress of Immunology August 21-25, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kristin Hoguist, Ph.D., and Daniel Mueller, M.D., will speak on immune tolerance in a symposium titled "Development, Regulation and Maintenance of Acquired Immunity." Stephen Jameson, Ph.D., will present during the "Immunological Memory" minisymposium, and Marc Jenkins, Ph.D., will present during a session titled "Imaging the Immune System" during the "Hot Topics in Immunology" plenary session.
Education and Events
Special Seminar
Tuesday, July 31, 2007, 12-1 p.m., 450 CCRB
The Taspasel proteolytic signaling pathway links MLL to cell cycle and beyond
James Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular Oncology, Washington University
Host: John Kersey, M.D.
The American Association of Immunologists 2007 Advanced Course in Immunology
August 4-9, 2007, University of Minnesota Coffman Memorial Union Theater, 300 Washington Avenue, S.E.
This intensive annual course is designed for serious students of immunology. Leading experts will present recent advances in understanding the biology of the immune system and its role in health and disease. Participants can receive 34 Continuing Medical Education (CME) Category I credits. This is not a survey course and requires that attendees have a firm understanding of the principles of immunology.
The course director is Marc Jenkins, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and associate director of the Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota. Space is limited. For more information and to register, go to http://www.aai.org/Adv_Course/2007/Program.htm
Macy's Glamorama advance tickets available
Friday, August 17, 2007, 8 p.m., Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis
Tickets are now on sale for Macy's Glamorama, benefiting the Children's Cancer Research fund. Some ticket levels offered include a pre-show party at Chambers at 6:30 p.m. Also new this year is another GLAM event, Prelude to Glam, on Saturday, July 28, at an estate in Eden Prairie. To purchase your tickets download the order form (pdf) or call 952-893-9355. For more information visit the CCRF Web site.
Funding News and Opportunities
NIH Announcements:
U.S.-India Bilateral Collaborative Research Partnerships (CRP) on the Prevention of HIV/AIDS (R21)
(RFA-AI-07-031)
National Cancer Institute (among others)
Application Submission/Receipt Date: October 18, 2007
Funding: Up to $275K in direct cost over 2 years (no one year to exceed $200K)
The U.S.-India Bilateral CRP Program is designed to develop collaborations between scientists and institutions in the U.S. and India to conduct high quality HIV/AIDS prevention research of mutual interest and benefit to both countries while developing the basis for future institutional and individual scientific collaborations. This FOA will utilize the research capacity of the institutions and scientists in both countries to advance the field of HIV/AIDS prevention and develop preliminary data that may support a research proposal to test an HIV/AIDS prevention program with public health significance.
Mechanisms of Immune Modulation (R01)
(RFA-AT-07-004)—R01
(RFA-AT-07-005)—R21
National Cancer Institute (among others)
Application Receipt Date: November 14, 2007
Funding: $200K-400K/yr (DC) for up to 4 years
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages mechanistic studies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities believed to modulate immune function. It is not intended to support efficacy studies.
Nutrition and Alcohol-Related Health Outcomes (R01)
(PA-07-403)—R01
(PA-07-404)—R03
(PA-07-405)—R21
National Cancer Institute (among others)
Application Receipt Date: Multiple dates, see announcements.
Funding: Because the nature and scope of the proposed research will vary from application to application, it is anticipated that the size and duration of each award will also vary.
The goal of this program announcement is to stimulate a broad range of research on the role of nutrition in the development, prevention, and treatment of a variety of alcohol-related health outcomes including alcohol dependence and psychiatric co-morbidities, chronic and acute diseases, and organ function and damage. Study designs may include biomedical research, epidemiologic approaches, and intervention studies.
Visit the Funding News & Opportunities Web page to see listings previously published in Update.