March 2007
Thomas Perlmann Appointed Director of Stockholm Branch
At its meeting in New York on March 20-21, the LICR Board approved the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Committee to appoint Thomas Perlmann, Ph.D., Director of the LICR Stockholm Branch. Dr. Perlmann succeeds Dr. Ralf Pettersson, the founding Director of the Branch, who stepped down in September, 2006.
Awards Bonanza for LICR Staff
Webster K. Cavenee (Director, San Diego Branch)
Dr. Cavenee was awarded the 2nd Annual Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) at an award ceremony in New York on March 6th. The Prize was established to recognize outstanding scientific achievement in the war against cancer and to honor pioneering scientists who have made extraordinary contributions in the field of cancer research. Read more »
Lloyd J. Old (Director, New York Branch, and Chairman, Board of Directors)
Dr. Old was awarded the 2007 Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Cancer Research Award at a prize ceremony in Zurich (Switzerland) on March 14th. The Award, which is conferred every second year, honors internationally recognized cancer researchers. Dr. Old shared the award for contributions in the field of, ‘Cancer Immunosurveillance and Immunotherapy,’ with LICR Affiliate, Dr. Robert Schreiber (Washington University, St Louis, USA), and with Dr. Mark Smyth (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia). Read more »
Andrew Clayton (Melbourne Branch)
Dr. Clayton was awarded the 2007 Young Fluorescence Investigator Award by the American Biophysical Society on March 3rd. The award honors pre-tenure investigators who have made significant contributions to the theory or practice of fluorescence and who hold promise to become leaders in the field. Dr. Clayton received the award - and presented a lecture - at the Society’s annual meeting held in Baltimore, MD (USA). The lecture described how Dr. Clayton and his group are using advanced fluorescence microscopy to determine the mechanism of activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in normal cells and in tumor cells. Their aim is to learn how existing drugs and antibodies interfere with the EGFR activation process; an important component of the Institute’s EGFR Program and, particularly, clinical research on the Institute’s monoclonal antibody, 806.
USD 4.5 Million Dollar Grant for Metastasis Research from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
LICR has been awarded a grant of USD 4.5 million over three years, from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, to support metastasis research. The grant elements include funding for: creation of a ‘Metastasis Database’ in which data and research findings on metastasis will be collated and organized; access to metastasis tumor banks, and; the analysis of samples from those metastasis tumor banks. Additionally, the grant has provisions for meetings between the Ludwig Institute and the six Ludwig Centers in the USA. The initiative was led by Dr. Lloyd Old, Chairman of the LICR Board of Directors and the Trustees of the Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research.
“This new relationship with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation re-establishes a link between LICR and one of its early architects and most passionate advocates, Mr. John Notter. Mr. Notter was the first Chairman of the LICR Board of Directors and is now on the Board of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. It was thanks, in part, to his support of the Institute’s proposal that the Foundation awarded this grant.”
Lloyd J. Old M.D.
Chairman, LICR Board of Directors
Million Dollar Grant for the Melbourne Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation
The Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) has awarded the Melbourne Branch AUD 1 million for the purchase of equipment for the Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program. Read more about the grant here.
LICR News
LICR News
Staff Appointments & Promotions:
To Branch Director: Dr. Thomas Perlmann (Stockholm Branch)
Cell:
From the laboratory of Dr. Bing Ren (San Diego Branch)
Kim TH, Abdullaev ZK, Smith AD, Ching KA, Loukinov DI, Green RD, Zhang MQ, Lobanenkov VV, Ren B. Analysis of the Vertebrate Insulator Protein CTCF-Binding Sites in the Human Genome. Cell. 2007 Mar 23;128(6):1231-45.
Nature Genetics:
(Also) From the laboratory of Dr. Bing Ren (San Diego Branch)
Heintzman ND, Stuart RK, Hon G, Fu Y, Ching CW, Hawkins RD, Barrera LO, Van Calcar S, Qu C, Ching KA, Wang W, Weng Z, Green RD, Crawford GE, Ren B. Distinct and predictive chromatin signatures of transcriptional promoters and enhancers in the human genome. Nat Genet. 2007 Mar;39(3):311-318. Epub 2007 Feb 4
Clinical Cancer Research (Cover feature)
From the laboratories of Drs. Andrew Scott (Director, Melbourne Center) and Terry Johns (Melbourne Center) and Web Cavenee (Director, San Diego Branch) and Frank Furnari (San Diego Branch)
Johns TG, Perera RM, Vernes SC, Vitali AA, Cao DX, Cavenee WK, Scott AM, Furnari FB. The Efficacy of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Specific Antibodies against Glioma Xenografts Is Influenced by Receptor Levels, Activation Status, and Heterodimerization. Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Mar 15;13(6):1911-1925.
Science
From the laboratory of Dr. Werner Held (Lausanne Branch):
Melichar HJ, Narayan K, Der SD, Hiraoka Y, Gardiol N, Jeannet G, Held W, Chambers CA, Kang J. Regulation of gammadelta versus alphabeta T lymphocyte differentiation by the transcription factor SOX13. Science. 2007 Jan 12;315(5809):230-3.
Journal of Biological Chemistry (back-to-back papers)
From the laboratory of Dr. Don Cleveland (San Diego Branch)
Jansen LE, Black BE, Foltz DR, Cleveland DW. Propagation of centromeric chromatin requires exit from mitosis. Journal of Cell Biology 2007 Mar 5.
From the laboratory of Drs. Arshad Desai and Karen Oegema (San Diego Branch)
Maddox PS, Hyndman F, Monen J, Oegema K, Desai A. Functional genomics identifies a Myb domain-containing protein family required for assembly of CENP-A chromatin. Journal of Cell Biology 2007 Mar 5.
Journal of Clinical Investigation
From the laboratories of Drs. Kwok Wong (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Lloyd Old (New York Branch), Webster Cavenee (San Diego Branch), Andrew Scott (Melbourne Center) and George Demetri (Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical School, and LICR):
Li D, Ji H, Zaghlul S, McNamara K, Liang MC, Shimamura T, Kubo S, Takahashi M, Chirieac LR, Padera RF, Scott AM, Jungbluth AA, Cavenee WK, Old LJ, Demetri GD, Wong KK. Therapeutic anti-EGFR antibody 806 generates responses in murine de novo EGFR mutant-dependent lung carcinomas. J Clin Invest. 2007 Feb 1;117(2):346-352. Epub 2007 Jan 25.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
From the laboratories of Drs. Andrew Scott (Director, Melbourne Center) and Terry Johns (Melbourne Center), Lloyd Old (Director, New York Branch) and Achim Jungbluth (New York Branch), Erich Hoffman (Director, Office of Clinical Trials Management, New York Office) and Tony Burgess (Director, Melbourne Branch) XX
Scott AM, Lee FT, Tebbutt N, Herbertson R, Gill SS, Liu Z, Skrinos E, Murone C, Saunder TH, Chappell B, Papenfuss AT, Poon AM, Hopkins W, Smyth FE, Macgregor D, Cher LM, Jungbluth AA, Brechbiel MW, Murphy R, Burgess AW, Hoffman EW, Johns TG, Old LJ. A phase I clinical trial with monoclonal antibody ch806 targeting transitional state and mutant epidermal growth factor receptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Mar 6;104(10):4071-6. PMID: 17360479
From the laboratory of Dr. Werner Held (Lausanne Branch)
Back J, Chalifour A, Scarpellino L, Held W. Stable masking by H-2Dd cis ligand limits Ly49A relocalization to the site of NK cell/target cell contact. PNAS 2007, Mar 6; 104(10):3978-83.
Grants
To Dr. Bing Ren (San Diego Branch)
From the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for “Mapping the transcriptional regulatory elements in the genome of human embryonic stem cells” (USD 691,489 for 2007-8).
To establish the Hilton Ludwig Cancer Metastasis Initiative:
From The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for “The Hilton Ludwig Cancer Metastasis Initiative” (USD 4,500,000 for 2007-9).
To Dr. Neil Robson, working with Drs. Eugene Maraskovsky and Jonathan Cebon (Melbourne Center), one of only five such fellowships awarded:
From the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, with industrial partner CSL Ltd (Australia), for “Understanding and exploiting ISCOMATRIX® vaccines interaction with dendritic cells” (AUD 369 000 for 2007-2010).
LICR in the News
Dr. Lloyd Old (Chairman of the LICR Board of Directors, and Director of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative) was quoted in the New York Times on March 30th. Dr. Old was responding to the positive recommendations from an FDA Advisory Panel on the first cancer vaccine to seek FDA approval.
The Journal of Immunology celebrated the discovery of the cancer antigen, MAGE-1, in its March 1 issue. MAGE-1 was, of course, discovered at the Brussels Branch, in collaboration with Dr. Alexander Knuth, now an LICR Affiliate at the University Hospital Zurich.
Dr. Joan Heath (Melbourne Branch) was interviewed on a radio program by the national broadcaster, ‘Australian Broadcasting Corporation’ (ABC), describing how zebrafish are used as a model for cancer research.
An announcement that Dr. Andrew Wilks (former Melbourne Branch) is the co-winner of the inaugural ‘Advancing BioBusiness Award’ from Merck, Sharpe & Dohme (Australia) and ‘Advance’ a global organization for expatriate Australians. Dr. Wilks discovered the JAK kinases while working at the Melbourne Branch, and formed a company, ‘Cytopia,’ to license the intellectual property from LICR.
Dr. Karen Vousden (former London St Mary’s Branch) was awarded the Biochemical Society’s 2008 Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memorial Lecture, in which a researcher is asked to assess the effect of recent advances in his or her field. Dr. Vousden - now Director of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow - led an LICR group conducting research into human papillomavirus oncogenes, but is best known for her work on p53.
Dr. Robert Moritz (Melbourne Branch) was interviewed by Australia's Computerworld Magazine on the supercomputing behind the Australian Proteomics Computer Facility being hosted and led by the Melbourne Branch. The video can be viewed here (right hand side of the page, half way down).
In Brief
Clinical Cancer Research Cover for Intra-Branch Collaboration
Congratulations to Drs. Terry Johns (Melbourne Center) and Frank Furnari (San Diego Branch), first and senior authors, respectively, and their colleagues (including Branch and Center Directors, Drs. Web Cavenee and Andrew Scott, respectively), for their study on the efficacy of EGFR antibodies in glioblastoma. The manuscript was featured on the March 15th cover of the journal, Clinical Cancer Research. The collaboration was conducted as part of the LICR’s ‘EGFR Program.’
Another Ludwig Cancer “Debut Collaboration”
The first paper from a collaboration between LICR and the Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical School was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in February. The collaboration was conducted as part of the LICR’s ‘EGFR Program’ and involves the preclinical characterization of the 806 mAb for non-small cell lung cancer.
New LICR Oxford Branch Begins Recruiting Drive
Dr. Xin Lu, Director of the LICR Oxford Branch has begun her recruiting drive for new Group Leaders. The Oxford Branch will commence operations in September/October 2007 when the LICR London University College Branch relocates to a new building in Oxford University. See www.licr.org for more details.
New Websites for Sao Paulo and Melbourne Branches & Melbourne Center
The Sao Paulo Branch, Melbourne Branch and Melbourne Center all have new websites — you can link to them from the top of the www.licr.org website — with new write-ups of all the groups at each site. Congratulations are due to the efforts headed by Lionel Bethancourt, Andrew Runting and Peter Lawry, respectively, for terrific jobs all round.
LICR Number Four of Public Sector Assignees by Patent Families
LICR was fourth in the list of public sector assignees by patent families (not single patents) according to a recent Nature Biotechnology study (M. M. Hopkins, S. Mahdi, P Patel and S M Thomas ‘DNA patenting: the end of an era?’ Nature Biotechnology Volume 25 Number 2 February 2007. pp.185-187) conducted by the SPRU, Science and Technology Policy Research Freeman Centre, University of Sussex, UK. The top three assignees, for patents filed between 1980 and 2003, were the University of California, the US Department of Health & Human Services (including the National Institutes of Health) and Johns Hopkins University.