In this issue:  Upcoming Deadlines and Events  |  Awards and Honors  |  Publications

Science Update: October - December 2010

Dear Damon Runyon Scientists,

Happy holidays from all of us at Damon Runyon! We wish you a healthy and successful new year.

Our Scientific Committees met this fall to select the newest awardees of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award and Fellowship Award. Stay tuned for the announcement of these awardees in January. In addition, we congratulate the first recipients of the new Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists.

Please see below for the latest update on exciting news and findings from your fellow Damon Runyon scientists – current and former. These are just the publications and awards that we are aware of, so we apologize if we have not included your work. Lay summaries of some of this work are posted on the News page of our website, along with additional news about our Scientific Committee and Board members.

Thanks again to those of you who have sent us updates on your recent progress. Please stay in touch!

Best regards,

Yung

Yung S. Lie, PhD
Scientific Director
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
One Exchange Plaza
55 Broadway, Suite 302
New York, NY 10006
212.455.0521
212.455.0529 FAX

A Message from our Executive Director, Lorraine Egan:

Giving by scientists increased dramatically this year!

There is no stronger endorsement of what we do than receiving support from scientists across the globe to help us fund the next generation of brilliant minds. This year, we have already raised $44,000 from more than 200 of you. We are so grateful for your support!

It currently costs $52,000 per year to fund a Damon Runyon Fellow (we recently increased the stipend in recognition of the many hours these young scientists spend at the bench). It would be fantastic if we could fund one of our fellows next year with money donated by our scientific community. That’s only $8,000 more…

The boom is going to fall again on NIH funding. It is urgent that we continue to encourage and support the best new researchers. Please help in any way that you can.

Many thanks for all that you do and have a happy, healthy and discovery-filled 2011!

Lorraine Egan
Executive Director

P.S. If you haven’t already, think about passing on the word about Damon Runyon to friends and family. You can forward them this introductory video about our work.

UPCOMING DEADLINES and EVENTS

> March 1, 2011
Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award application deadline
Details available on our website.

> March 15, 2011
Damon Runyon Fellowship Award application deadline
Details available on our website.

AWARDS and HONORS

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers:
Muneesh Tewari, MD, PhD(Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ‘09-‘11), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle

Election to the Institute of Medicine:
Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘73-‘74), National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park

NIH Transformative R01 Award:
Madhav Dhodapkar, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘02-‘07), Yale Cancer Center, New Haven

NIH Pioneer Award:
Jun O. Liu, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘91-‘93), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore

New Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s Breast Cancer Program:
Vered Stearns, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘00-‘05)

PUBLICATIONS

Charles L. Asbury, PhD (Fellow ‘01-‘03), University of Washington, Seattle
Tension directly stabilizes reconstituted kinetochore-microtubule attachments. Akiyoshi B, Sarangapani KK, Powers AF, Nelson CR, Reichow SL, Arellano-Santoyo H, Gonen T, Ranish JA, Asbury CL, Biggins S. Nature. 2010 Nov 25;468(7323):576-9.

Ronald J. Buckanovich, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘08-‘11), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
F3-targeted cisplatin-hydrogel nanoparticles as an effective therapeutic that targets both murine and human ovarian tumor endothelial cells in vivo. Winer I, Wang S, Lee YE, Fan W, Gong Y, Burgos-Ojeda D, Spahlinger G, Kopelman R, Buckanovich RJ. Cancer Res. 2010 Nov 1;70(21):8674-83.

Kara L. Cerveny, PhD (Fellow ‘05-‘08), University College, London
Funduscopy in adult zebrafish and its application to isolate mutant strains with ocular defects. Tschopp M, Takamiya M, Cerveny KL, Gestri G, Biehlmaier O, Wilson SW, Strähle U, Neuhauss SC. PLoS One. 2010 Nov 5;5(11):e15427.

Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH (Clinical Investigator ‘08-‘11), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Phosphorylated AKT expression is associated with PIK3CA mutation, low stage, and favorable outcome in 717 colorectal cancers. Baba Y, Nosho K, Shima K, Hayashi M, Meyerhardt JA, Chan AT, Giovannucci E, Fuchs CS, Ogino S. Cancer. 2010 Nov 8.

Inflammatory Markers are Associated with Risk of Colorectal Cancer and Chemopreventative Response to Anti-Inflammatory Drugs. Chan AT, Ogino S, Giovannucci EL, Fuchs CS. Gastroenterology. 2010 Nov 26.

Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD (Scholar ‘06-‘08, former Fellowship Sponsor), Stanford University, Stanford
and Julien Sage, PhD (Scholar ‘05-‘07), Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford
G1 arrest and differentiation can occur independently of Rb family function. Wirt SE, Adler AS, Gebala V, Weimann JM, Schaffer BE, Saddic LA, Viatour P, Vogel H, Chang HY, Meissner A, Sage J. J Cell Biol. 2010 Nov 8.

Jayanta Chaudhuri, PhD (Scholar ‘06-‘08, Fellow ‘97-‘00), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
CtIP promotes microhomology-mediated alternative end joining during class-switch recombination. Lee-Theilen M, Matthews AJ, Kelly D, Zheng S, Chaudhuri J. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010 Dec 5.

Rachael A. Clark, MD, PhD (Clinical Investigator ‘08-‘11), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
CD1a-autoreactive T cells are a normal component of the human αβ T cell repertoire. de Jong A, Peña-Cruz V, Cheng TY, Clark RA, Van Rhijn I, Moody DB. Nat Immunol. 2010 Oct 31.

Development of a nascent galectin-1 chimeric molecule for studying the role of leukocyte galectin-1 ligands and immune disease modulation. Cedeno-Laurent F, Barthel SR, Opperman MJ, Lee DM, Clark RA, Dimitroff CJ. J Immunol. 2010 Oct 15;185(8):4659-72.

High scatter T cells (THS): a reliable biomarker for malignant T cells in cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Clark RA, Shackelton JB, Watanabe R, Calarese A, Yamanaka KI, Campbell JJ, Teague JE, Kuo HP, Hijnen D, Kupper TS. Blood. 2010 Dec 9.

Colleen Delaney, MD, MSc (Damon Runyon-Novartis Clinical Investigator ‘07-‘10), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for hematologic malignancy: relative risks and benefits of double umbilical cord blood. Brunstein CG, Gutman JA, Weisdorf DJ, Woolfrey AE, Defor TE, Gooley TA, Verneris MR, Appelbaum FR, Wagner JE, Delaney C. Blood. 2010 Nov 25;116(22):4693-9.

Juli Feigon, PhD (Fellow ‘82-‘85), University of California, Los Angeles
Structurally conserved five nucleotide bulge determines the overall topology of the core domain of human telomerase RNA. Zhang Q, Kim NK, Peterson RD, Wang Z, Feigon J. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 2;107(44):18761-8.

Dean W. Felsher, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘03-‘08), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford
CD4(+) T Cells Contribute to the Remodeling of the Microenvironment Required for Sustained Tumor Regression upon Oncogene Inactivation. Rakhra K, Bachireddy P, Zabuawala T, Zeiser R, Xu L, Kopelman A, Fan AC, Yang Q, Braunstein L, Crosby E, Ryeom S, Felsher DW. Cancer Cell. 2010 Nov 16;18(5):485-98.

PET Imaging of Tumor Neovascularization in a Transgenic Mouse Model with a Novel 64Cu-DOTA-Knottin Peptide. Nielsen CH, Kimura RH, Withofs N, Tran PT, Miao Z, Cochran JR, Cheng Z, Felsher D, Kjær A, Willmann JK, Gambhir SS. Cancer Res. 2010 Nov 15;70(22):9022-30.

Chuan He, PhD (Fellow ‘00-‘02), The University of Chicago, Chicago
Iron-catalysed oxidation intermediates captured in a DNA repair dioxygenase. Yi C, Jia G, Hou G, Dai Q, Zhang W, Zheng G, Jian X, Yang CG, Cui Q, He C. Nature. 2010 Nov 11;468(7321):330-3.

Selective chemical labeling reveals the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Song CX, Szulwach KE, Fu Y, Dai Q, Yi C, Li X, Li Y, Chen CH, Zhang W, Jian X, Wang J, Zhang L, Looney TJ, Zhang B, Godley LA, Hicks LM, Lahn BT, Jin P, He C. Nat Biotechnol. 2010 Dec 12.

Adriana Heguy, PhD (Fellow ‘86-‘88), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
Mutations in GNA11 in Uveal Melanoma. Van Raamsdonk CD, Griewank KG, Crosby MB, Garrido MC, Vemula S, Wiesner T, Obenauf AC, Wackernagel W, Green G, Bouvier N, Sozen MM, Baimukanova G, Roy R, Heguy A, Dolgalev I, Khanin R, Busam K, Speicher MR, O’Brien J, Bastian BC. N Engl J Med. 2010 Nov 17.

John V. Heymach, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘04-‘09), M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
miR-200 Inhibits Lung Adenocarcinoma Cell Invasion and Metastasis by Targeting Flt1/VEGFR1. Roybal JD, Zang Y, Ahn YH, Yang Y, Gibbons DL, Baird BN, Alvarez CA, Thilaganathan N, Saintigny P, Liu D, Heymach JV, Creighton CJ, Kurie JM. Mol Cancer Res. 2010 Nov 29.

Melissa R. Junttila, PhD (Fellow ‘07-‘10), University of California, San Francisco
Selective activation of p53-mediated tumour suppression in high-grade tumours. Junttila MR, Karnezis AN, Garcia D, Madriles F, Kortlever RM, Rostker F, Brown Swigart L, Pham DM, Seo Y, Evan GI, Martins CP. Nature. 2010 Nov 25;468(7323):567-71.

Jung-Min Kee, PhD (Fellow ‘09-‘11), The Rockefeller University, New York
Development of stable phosphohistidine analogues. Kee JM, Villani B, Carpenter LR, Muir TW. J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Oct 20;132(41):14327-9.

Sridhar Mani, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘02-‘07), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx
Alleviating cancer drug toxicity by inhibiting a bacterial enzyme. Wallace BD, Wang H, Lane KT, Scott JE, Orans J, Koo JS, Venkatesh M, Jobin C, Yeh LA, Mani S, Redinbo MR. Science. 2010 Nov 5;330(6005):831-5.

Pierre P. Massion, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘03-‘08), Vanderbilt University, Nashville
DNA copy number aberrations in small-cell lung cancer reveal activation of the focal adhesion pathway. Ocak S, Yamashita H, Udyavar AR, Miller AN, Gonzalez AL, Zou Y, Jiang A, Yi Y, Shyr Y, Estrada L, Quaranta V, Massion PP. Oncogene. 2010 Aug 30.

John Mendelsohn, MD (Grantee ‘72-‘74, former Clinical Investigator Award Committee), M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Recombinant human erythropoietin antagonizes trastuzumab treatment of breast cancer cells via Jak2-mediated Src activation and PTEN inactivation. Liang K, Esteva FJ, Albarracin C, Stemke-Hale K, Lu Y, Bianchini G, Yang CY, Li Y, Li X, Chen CT, Mills GB, Hortobagyi GN, Mendelsohn J, Hung MC, Fan Z. Cancer Cell. 2010 Nov 16;18(5):423-35.

Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD (Fellow ‘95-‘98, Current Sponsor), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge
and James M. Olson, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘02-‘07), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
Integrative Genomic Analysis of Medulloblastoma Identifies a Molecular Subgroup That Drives Poor Clinical Outcome. Cho YJ, Tsherniak A, Tamayo P, Santagata S, Ligon A, Greulich H, Berhoukim R, Amani V, Goumnerova L, Eberhart CG, Lau CC, Olson JM, Gilbertson RJ, Gajjar A, Delattre O, Kool M, Ligon K, Meyerson M, Mesirov JP, Pomeroy SL. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Dec 6.

Peter S. Nelson, MD (Clinical Investigator Mentor, Scholar ‘02-‘04), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor controls androgen signaling and human prostate cancer progression. Sharma A, Yeow WS, Ertel A, Coleman I, Clegg N, Thangavel C, Morrissey C, Zhang X, Comstock CE, Witkiewicz AK, Gomella L, Knudsen ES, Nelson PS, Knudsen KE. J Clin Invest. 2010 Dec 1;120(12):4478-92. doi: 10.1172/JCI44239.

Nancy Raab-Traub, PhD (Fellow ‘80-‘82), University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill Human tumor virus utilizes exosomes for intercellular communication. Meckes DG Jr, Shair KH, Marquitz AR, Kung CP, Edwards RH, Raab-Traub N. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 23;107(47):20370-5.

Tiffany A. Reese, PhD (Fellow ‘09-‘12), Washington University in St. Louis
Identification of novel microRNA-like molecules generated from herpesvirus and host tRNA transcripts. Reese TA, Xia J, Johnson LS, Zhou X, Zhang W, Virgin HW. J Virol. 2010 Oct;84(19):10344-53.

John L. Rinn, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ‘09-‘11, Fellow ‘05-‘07), Harvard University, Cambridge
Large intergenic non-coding RNA-RoR modulates reprogramming of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Loewer S, Cabili MN, Guttman M, Loh YH, Thomas K, Park IH, Garber M, Curran M, Onder T, Agarwal S, Manos PD, Datta S, Lander ES, Schlaeger TM, Daley GQ, Rinn JL. Nat Genet. 2010 Dec;42(12):1113-7.

Joel H. Rubenstein, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘07-‘10), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Incidence in Individuals With Gastroesophageal Reflux: Synthesis and Estimates From Population Studies. Rubenstein JH, Scheiman JM, Sadeghi S, Whiteman D, Inadomi JM. Am J Gastroenterol. 2010 Dec 7.

Ming-Jer Tsai, PhD (Fellow ‘71-‘73), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
Nuclear receptor COUP-TFII controls pancreatic islet tumor angiogenesis by regulating vascular endothelial growth factor/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 signaling. Qin J, Chen X, Yu-Lee LY, Tsai MJ, Tsai SY. Cancer Res. 2010 Nov 1;70(21):8812-21.

Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘00-‘05), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Combination immunotherapy using adoptive T-cell transfer and tumor antigen vaccination based on hTERT and survivin following ASCT for myeloma. Rapoport AP, Aqui NA, Stadtmauer EA, Vogl DT, Fang HB, Cai L, Janofsky S, Chew A, Storek J, Akpek G, Badros A, Yanovich S, Tan MT, Veloso E, Pasetti MF, Cross A, Philip S, Murphy H, Bhagat R, Zheng Z, Milliron T, Cotte J, Cannon A, Levine BL, Vonderheide RH, June CH. Blood. 2010 Oct 28.

Kathryn E. Wellen, PhD (Fellow ‘07-‘10), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway couples growth factor-induced glutamine uptake to glucose metabolism. Wellen KE, Lu C, Mancuso A, Lemons JM, Ryczko M, Dennis JW, Rabinowitz JD, Coller HA, Thompson CB. Genes Dev. 2010 Nov 24.

Monte Winslow, PhD (Fellow ‘06-‘09), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Stage-specific sensitivity to p53 restoration during lung cancer progression. Feldser DM, Kostova KK, Winslow MM, Taylor SE, Cashman C, Whittaker CA, Sanchez-Rivera FJ, Resnick R, Bronson R, Hemann MT, Jacks T. Nature. 2010 Nov 25;468(7323):572-5.

> Visit the New Discoveries and Honors page for more.