April 1, 2011

Announcements

Yale and Gilead Sciences Announce Cancer Research Collaboration

Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Yale School of Medicine today announced the formation of a multi-year research collaboration focused on the discovery of novel cancer therapies. The research effort will initially span four years with an option to renew for up to ten years. Gilead will provide $40 million in research support and basic science infrastructure development during the initial four-year period, and will provide a total of up to $100 million over ten years should the collaboration be extended through that timeframe. Gilead will have the first option to license Yale inventions that result from the collaboration.

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Alfred Lee Joins Yale

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Alfred Ian Lee, MD, PhD to the position of Assistant Professor of Hematology.

American Association for Cancer Research Meeting

I am looking forward to joining many of you at the annual AACR meeting this weekend. Several members of the Yale faculty and staff are scheduled to present lectures, symposiums, and educational and poster sessions.  

This year's agenda includes the following participants from Yale:

Symposiums:

Late Breaking Research

Thomas Lynch - Discussant

Sunday, Apr 03, 2011, 4:05 PM - 4:15 PM

Room W415 B/C, (Valencia Ballroom), Orange County Convention Center

MicroRNAs as therapeutics and therapeutic targets

Frank Slack

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 1:35 PM - 1:55 PM

Room W415 B/C, (Valencia Ballroom), Orange County Convention Center

Placebo controls in low resource countries where known effective therapy is unavailable for economic or logistical reasons: Ethical considerations

Robert J. Levine

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 3:55 PM - 4:20 PM

Room W414 A/B, Orange County Convention Center

Toxicity and activity of anti-PD1 in phase 1 clinical trials

Mario Sznol

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 11:05 AM -11:25 AM

Room W415 B/C, (Valencia Ballroom), Orange County Convention Center

Pluripotency genes as targets for cancer prevention

Kavita Dhodapkar

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:35 PM - 1:55 PM

West Hall F1/F2, Orange County Convention Center

Educational Sessions:

Non-coding RNAs Beyond MicroRNAs: New Rising Stars in the Genomic Galaxy

Frank Slack - Chairperson

Saturday, Apr 02, 2011, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

West Hall F1/F2, Orange County Convention Center

microRNAs: Major Players in Cancer Initiation, Progression, and Dissemination

Joanne B. Weidhaas

Saturday, Apr 02, 2011, 10:15 AM -12:15 PM

Room W330, Orange County Convention Center

Research Session:

Gene fusions and RNA trans-splicing in normal cells and sarcoma

Jeffrey Sklar

Wednesday, Apr 06, 2011, 12:15 PM -12:35 PM

Room W414 C/D, Orange County Convention Center

Science Policy Session:

What will it take to curb the tobacco epidemic?

Roy S. Herbst - Moderator

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Room W414 C/D, Orange County Convention Center

NCI Sponsored Session:

Using Informatics to Accelerate Translational Cancer Research: The Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid® (caBIG®)

Michael Krauthammer

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 10:15 AM -11:45 AM

Room W208, Orange County Convention Center

Mini-Symposiums:

ABCC/MRP multidrug transporters contribute to neuroblastoma biology, pathogenesis and clinical outcome, independently of any role in cytotoxic drug efflux

Alan Sartorelli

Sunday, Apr 03, 2011, 4:05 PM - 4:20 PM

Room W311 E-H, Orange County Convention Center

Tyrosine phosphorylation of LDH-A is important for cancer cell redox homeostasis and tumor growth

Titus Boggon

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 3:05 PM - 3:20 PM

West Hall F1/F2, Orange County Convention Center

Dynamic changes in gene expression after one dose of trastuzumab (T) reveal novel biomarkers of response to combination therapy in HER2 positive early stage breast cancer

Lyndsay N. Harris, Emmett Sprecher, Lisa Wei-Gu, Kimberly Lezon-Geyda, Sudipa Sarkar, David P. Tuck

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 3:05 PM - 3:20 PM

Room W209, Orange County Convention Center

Pathway and gene set analyses for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) genome-wide association study (GWAS)

Harvey Risch

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 3:50 PM - 4:05 PM

Room W414 A/B, Orange County Convention Center

Poster Sessions:

Fascin expression in colorectal cancer metastases predicts survival after curative-intent surgery

Catherine Sullivan, Xiaojie Guo, Zuoheng Wang, Constantine Theoharis, David L. Rimm, Daniel J. Boffa

Sunday, Apr 03, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 14

Novel potential precursor structures for BRCA1-associated breast cancer

Sihem Khelifa, Eric Falke, Jie Li, Alexander Vortmeyer

Sunday, Apr 03, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 9

Tumor cell-leukocyte fusion in human cancer: A melanoma brain metastasis with a donor-patient hybrid genome following allogeneic BMT

Rossitza Lazova, Mario Sznol, Dennis Cooper, John M. Pawelek

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 21

AIP1 suppresses tumor metastasis by regulating tumor micro-environment and metastatic niche

Weidong Ji

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 20

A 3'UTR KRAS-variant and triple negative breast cancer

Trupti Paranjape, Joanne B. Weidhaas

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 39

Genetic variations in DNA repair pathway genes, body mass index, and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Yingtai Chen, Tongzhang Zheng, Kristopher Kim, Theodore Holford, Brian Leaderer, Yawei Zhang, Francine Foss

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 36

Overweight, genetic polymorphisms in oxidative stress pathway genes and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Christopher Kim, Tongzhang Zheng, Yingtai Chen, Francine Foss, Theodore Holford, Brian Leaderer, Yawei Zhang

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 36

Differential regulation of hypoxia-inducible factors 1α and 2α by hypoxia

Qun Lin, Xiangyu Cong, Zhong Yun

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 5

Depression of mitochondrial bioenergetics is a potent death stimulus in the ovarian cancer stem cells

Ayesha B. Alvero, Michele K. Montagna, Jennie C. Holmberg, David Brown, Gil Mor

Monday, Apr 04, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 40

Epithelial ovarian cancer stem cells are the source of metastatic progenitor cells

Gang Yin, Vinny Craveiro, Jennie Holmberg, Han-Hsuan Fu, Michele K. Montagna, Ayesha Alvero, Gil Mor

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 22

MicroRNA let-7a is a possible new marker for predicting the effect of paclitaxel in epithelial ovarian cancer

Lingeng Lu, Peter Schwartz, Thomas Rutherford, Herbert Yu

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 12

The effect of E-cadherin loss on melanoma formation and metastasis in a conditional mouse model

Lara E. Rosenbaum, William E. Damsky, Jr., Marcus Bosenberg

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 21

Eradication of chemotherapy-resistant CD44+ human ovarian cancer stem cells in C.B-17/SCID mice by intraperitoneal administration of Clostridium Perfringens Enterotoxin (CPE)

Alessandro D. Santin, Emiliano Cocco, Stefania Bellone, Francesca Casagrande, Marta Bellone, Paola Todeschini, Joyce Varughese, Dan-Arin Silasi, Masoud Azodi, Thomas Rutherford, Peter Schwartz

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 22

Biomarkers for assessment of tissue quality in cancer research

Jie Li, Arianne Eason, Alexander Vortmeyer

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 35

Mechanism of radiosensitization by inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)

Denise C. Hegan, Peter M. Glazer

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 5

Regulation of cancer cell differentiation in vivo by delta-like 1 homolog (Drosophila) DLK1

Asma Begum, Qun Lin, Zhong Yun

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 22

Can shift-work shift epigenetic patterns? - Genome-wide methylation profiling and cancer pathway analysis

Yong Zhu, Aaron Hoffman, Tongzhang Zheng

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 35

Genetic effects and modifiers of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on survival in pancreatic cancer

Herbert Yu, Lingeng Lu, Dhanpat Jain, Mark S. Kidd, Harvey A. Risch

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 36

LC3B-positive autophagosomes are a common feature of solid tumors and associated with proliferation, metastasis and poor outcome

Rossitza Lazova, Robert Camp, Summar Siddiqui, Vincent Klump, John M. Pawelek

Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 1

Intermedin stimulates cell growth, migration, and angiogenesis in human colorectal adenocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma

Xiaojia Guo, John Schmitz, Edward Uchio, Barton Kenney, Sanjay Kulkarni, Charles Cha

Wednesday, Apr 06, 2011, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM

Exhibit Hall A4-C, Poster Section 18

Funding and Award Opportunities

Connecticut Department of Public Health: Tobacco Use Cessation Programs

The State of Connecticut, Department of Public Health (DPH) announces the release of a Request for Proposal (DPH RFP # 2011-0917) for tobacco use cessation services in Connecticut, especially targeting populations that have a documented disparate use of tobacco products compared to the general population.

DPH is looking for contractors to provide group and individual tobacco use cessation counseling services to Connecticut residents.

Letter of Intent Due:

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Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award®

Nominations are open for the 13th annual Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award. This prestigious award honors caregivers in the New England region who display extraordinary compassion in caring for patients. The winner will receive $5,000 and four finalists will receive $1,000 each.

Nomination Deadline:

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The Program for Research Leadership (PRL) is a Connecticut-focused grant program that will support transdisciplinary teams of health researchers led by a principal investigator who has demonstrated leadership in innovative and useful health research and in transferring knowledge gained from research into clinical and/or public health practice.  The overall goal of the program is to fund rigorous health research that incorporates effective approaches to translating research knowledge into practice. The program provides opportunities for the team members to enhance their expertise in transdisciplinary work and knowledge translation. This is a four-year award granting up to $200,000 per year.  Total grant award is up to $800,000 (plus 10% indirect costs on an annual basis). The foundation will make one Program for Research Leadership grant award in 2011.

Letter of Intent Deadline: May 26, 2011

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Development Update