LICR NewsLink

September 2005

Jak/Stat and Cytokine Receptor Research at the Brussels Branch

The Signal Transduction Group headed by Dr. Stefan Constantinescu, has been studying the mechanisms by which cytokine receptors, such as the receptors for erythropoietin (EpoR) and thrombopoietin (Tpo), respectively, which interact with and activate Janus tyrosine kinases (JAKs) that in turn activate signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins. The group's work on the TpoR traffic triggered an interest in the cause of Polycythemia Vera (PV) and two other related diseases that progress to acute leukemia. Read more on the group's research here.

LICR Fund Ranks in Top 10 USA Endowment Performances for 2004

The LICR Fund, which invests the endowment for LICR, finished 2004 as one of the top 10 endowments in performance, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy (USA). The Fund was in ninth place out of some 60 institutions reporting for the 2004 calendar year, outperforming such notables as the Doris Duke Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The Fund also placed in the top 10 of the financial year (to June 30th), besting, for example, Yale University, Princeton University and the University of California. Read more here.

Search Committees Appointed for São Paulo and Lausanne Branch Directors

LICR has appointed two search committees to identify candidates to succeed Dr. Ricardo R. Brentani and Dr. Jean-Charles Cerottini as Directors of the São Paulo and Lausanne Branches, respectively. Both positions will be advertised in major scientific journals and nominations from within LICR are also actively sought. Applications and nominations, in electronic format only, should be sent to the head of the respective search committee, Drs. Sam Hellman (São Paulo) or Richard Kolodner (Lausanne), care of Ms. Kathy Meaghan at the LICR New York Office (kmeaghan@licr.org). Read about the search.

Phone Number Changes for Zurich

The area code for Zurich has now changed from (0)1 to (0)44. Therefore, the Zurich Office main telephone and fax numbers (dialing from outside Switzerland) are now +41 44 267 6262 and +41 44 267 6200.

Oops! We forgot the São Paulo HPV team photographs in the June NewsLink!

Tips & Tricks from the OIT: Which Genome Browser Should I Use?

Don’t know which genome browser to use? Confused by the wealth of information? Concerned that the data might not really be you think they are? The Office of Information Technology has written a simple yet comprehensive explanation of the top three online genome browsers (‘UCSC Genome Browser’, ‘Ensembl’ and ‘NCBI Map Viewer’). Read it here.

LICR Intranet

The Offices of Communications, Intellectual Property and Information Technology are in the process of completely revising the LICR intranet. Some features will be moved to a password-protected area on the internet (www.licr.org) and some features will disappear completely. Now is the time to send your suggestions, requests and pleas for a stay of execution for your favorite pages to Sarah White at swhite@licr.org.

LICR News

Nature⁷…:

the August cover of Nature Neuroscience from the Stockholm Branch
Sandberg M, Kallstrom M, Muhr J. ‘Sox21 promotes the progression of vertebrate neurogenesis’, Nature Neuroscience 8(8):995-1001, PMID: 15995704

Nature Medicine from the Melbourne Branch
Jenkins BJ, Grail D, Nheu T, Najdovska M, Wang B, Waring P, Inglese M, McLoughlin RM, Jones SA, Topley N, Baumann H, Judd LM, Giraud AS, Boussioutas A, Zhu HJ, Ernst M. ‘Hyperactivation of Stat3 in gp130 mutant mice promotes gastric hyperproliferation and desensitizes TGF-beta signaling’, Nature Medicine Jul 24 Epub ahead of print. PMID: 16041381;

Nature Genetics from the San Diego Branch
Wang Y, Putnam CD, Kane MF, Zhang W, Edelmann L, Russell R, Carrion DV, Chin L, Kucherlapati R, Kolodner RD, Edelmann W. ‘Mutation in Rpa1 results in defective DNA double-strand break repair, chromosomal instability and cancer in mice’, Nature Genetics 37(7):750-5 PMID: 15965476;

The paper above was also featured as a Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Cancer 5(8):583;

Nature Cancer Reviews from the New York Branch and the New York Office
Simpson AJ, Caballero OL, Jungbluth A, Chen YT, Old LJ. ‘Cancer/Testis Antigens, Gametogenesis and Cancer’, Nature Reviews Cancer 5(8):615-25 PMID: 16034368;

Nature Immunology celebrated its 5th Birthday in July this year, and listed four or five papers from each year as key citations. One of those papers was a collaborative study from the Oxford Affiliate Center, the Konstanz Affiliate Center and the New York Branch
Gadola SD, Zaccai NR, Harlos K, Shepherd D, Castro-Palomino JC, Ritter G, Schmidt RR, Jones EY, Cerundolo V. ‘Structure of human CD1b with bound ligands at 2.3 Å, a maze for alkyl chains’, Nature Immunology 3(8):721-6, 2002, PMID: 12118248.

The recent Nature News Feature on the lymphatic system was centered on the research from the Helsinki Affiliate Center and the Melbourne Branch, which was part of the Institute’s Angiogenesis Program
‘Lymphatic system: Unlocking the Drains’, Nature 436(7050):456-8. PMID: 16049446

PNAS⁴…:

From the San Diego Branch
Lehtonen S, Ryan JJ, Kudlicka K, Iino N, Zhou H, Farquhar MG. ‘Cell junction-associated proteins IQGAP1, MAGI-2, CASK, spectrins, and alpha-actinin are components of the nephrin multiprotein complex.’ PNAS 102(28):9814-9. PMID: 102(28):9814-9A

From the San Diego Branch
Lobsiger CS, Garcia ML, Ward CM, Cleveland DW. ‘Altered axonal architecture by removal of the heavily phosphorylated neurofilament tail domains strongly slows superoxide dismutase 1 mutant-mediated ALS.’ PNAS 102(29):10351-6. PMID: 16002469

From the Uppsala Branch
Bengoechea-Alonso MT, Punga T, Ericsson J. ‘Hyperphosphorylation regulates the activity of SREBP1 during mitosis.’ PNAS Aug 16;102(33):11681-6. PMID: 16081540

From the New York Office
Rand V, Huang J, Stockwell T, Ferriera S, Buzko O, Levy S, Busam D, Li K, Edwards JB, Eberhart C, Murphy KM, Tsiamouri A, Beeson K, Simpson AJ, Venter JC, Riggins GJ, Strausberg RL. Sequence survey of receptor tyrosine kinases reveals mutations in glioblastomas. PNAS 2005 Sep 26; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 16186508

 

Congratulations to LICR Affiliate Dr. Kari Alitalo (Helsinki Affiliate Center, University of Helsinki), who was awarded 2005 Pfizer Advances in Oncology Award. The award is granted annually to a researcher in recognition of his or her significant scientific contributions and achievements. Dr. Alitalo’s achievements in growth factor research, a large part of the LICR’s Angiogenesis Program, were cited as the main criteria.

Staff Promotions and Appointments

To Associate Member: Dr. Ian Davis (Melbourne Branch)

LICR in the news:

The Nature Medicine paper (see above) from the Melbourne Branch received coverage on medical/science websites in Australia, UK, USA, Germany and India, and on regional television news websites in the USA. It was also a ‘Yahoo! Health Highlight’ for several days.

A paper from Dr. Serhiy Souchelnytskyi’ group (Uppsala Branch) was covered on medical/science websites in Australia, UK, USA, Germany, India, China and Ukraine, on the Swedish 24 hours television news, on Swedish and Danish radio and in the Swedish and Danish newspapers
(‘Increased expression of cSHMT, Tbx3 and utrophin in plasma of ovarian and breast cancer patients.’ Int. J. Cancer ).

A colon cancer study in the LICR’s Antibody Targeting Program, headed by Dr. Andrew Scott (Melbourne Branch), was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s premier current affairs television program, The 7.30 Report (Transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1427594.htm).

Dr. Xin Lu, Director of the London University College Branch was profiled on the UK’s Association of Medical Research Charities (LICR is a member of this and other ‘local’ groups around the world) website. Dr. Lu gave an interview about women in science and her new position as Branch Director: http://www.amrc.org.uk/index.asp?id=10838

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