Cancer Awareness Month |
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March is…
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
National Kidney Cancer Awareness Month
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Welcome New Employees |
Mahboubeh (Mahby) Pishgou, Physician Assistant, Department of Radiation Oncology
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Faculty Senate Awards |
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![]() Vadivel Ganapathy, PhD, Chair, Biochemistry and Cancer Biology Program Chair, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department; Leader, Signaling & Angiogenesis Program. |
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GRU Research Day |
Thursday, March 20, 2014: Friday, March 21, 2014: |
Research Poster Templates & Printing |
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Taking pride and showing pride in our community “A neighbor is not he whom I find in my path, but rather he in whose path I place myself, he whom I approach and actively seek.”— Gustavo Gutierrez You’ve probably seen the signs in our lobbies or perhaps posted around campus or area neighborhoods. Perhaps you’ve also seen the static stickers on cars in our parking lot or in the windows of area businesses. Perhaps there is a sign in your own yard or car. Their message is simple, but important. I Am Proud to Support the GRU Cancer Center. What this represents is more than merely an understanding that the work we do here is important and beneficial. It represents a certain level of engagement by the community. It represents the idea that the community we serve is just as proud as we are of the work we do here. You see, it’s easy to get lost in the work we do here. It’s easy to become so focused on the challenges we strive to overcome and the breakthroughs we chase that we lose sight, for a second, of the big picture. We don’t work for the GRU Cancer Center. We don’t work for Georgia Regents University. We work for the people of this community and the fact that it makes them proud should make us proud as well. |
Have you Heard…?
- Building: A Community
We are honored that our community has recognized the importance of our vision … . We are particularly glad to have this opportunity to reinforce our need for a new cancer facility. >> Continue reading
- San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Review
The GRU Cancer Center welcomed fellow oncologists to discover and discuss information from this year’s SABCS March 6th. >> Continue reading
- Calling All ArtistsIn appreciation of the creative talents of the GRU Cancer Center employees, we are developing an Employee Art Exhibit to display the work from our own staff and faculty throughout the year in our lobby. >> Continue reading
- Hearts and Hands
Grovetown Elementary School students are working on a project to make blankets for Georgia Radiation Therapy Center’s cancer patients. . >> Continue reading
- We Brought Them Here
National Doctors’ Day will be observed on March 30 in the United States. >> Continue reading
- March is Social Workers Month
Each March we observe National Professional Social Work Month as a way to celebrate the hard work and dedication of social workers across the country and highlight the important contributions they make to society. >> Continue reading
Grants News
- John K. Cowell, PhD, DSc, FRCPath, received a 1-year, $100K ‘bridge funding’ award from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in support of a recent NIH grant submission that was considered to be of high impact by NIH study sections but fell outside of the funding range. The ASH bridge funding program provides funds that will allow additional data to be collected to support re-submissions of such proposals. The proposal by Dr. Cowell focused on assessing whether targeting the FGFR1 kinase would be a new treatment for AML. Funds provided by ASH will support investigations into the use of in vivo AML models to target FGFR1 kinase with novel drugs and to study the mechanisms of resistance to these anti-FGFR1 therapeutics.
- Esteban Celis, MD, PhD, brings to the GRU Cancer Center the remaining 3 years of his 5-year NCI/NIH R01 grant, “Interferon-gamma limits the effectiveness of peptide vaccines for cancer” that was awarded $1.6M during his tenure at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. One of the major obstacles for developing effective vaccines for treating cancer has been producing vaccines that induce strong immune responses against tumors. Unfortunately, most current vaccine types generate minimal immune responses and have little effect against established tumors. We have designed a novel vaccination approach called TriVax that utilizes 3 basic components: 1) synthetic peptides (protein fragments) derived from tumor antigens that stimulate T lymphocytes; 2) potent immunological adjuvants that activate the immune system; and 3) immune stimulatory monoclonal antibodies that enhance the efficacy of T cells to react with tumor cells. Preliminary results in a mouse model of malignant melanoma using TriVax demonstrates that this strategy is effective in inducing strong anti-tumor-T cell responses capable of decreasing tumor growth and enhancing survival. Interestingly, we also observed that TriVax is a substantially better therapy for established tumors, resulting in total tumor eradications in mice that are deficient of interferon-gamma. These results are confounding because interferon-gamma is a cytokine considered to be beneficial for immunotherapy against cancer. The goal of proposed studies is to undercover the mechanisms involved by which interferon-gamma may be inhibiting the therapeutic efficacy of TriVax and to develop strategies to overcome the negative effects of this cytokine in the treatment of cancer using optimized vaccines. The results from these studies will serve as preclinical data that will allow us to take this novel approach into the clinic to treat human patients with various types of cancer.
Newly Activated Clinical Trials
- Cindy Neunert, MD, received a $56K sub-contract from Boston Children’s Hospital for “ICON 1: Physician Treatment Decisions and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Pediatric Refractory Immune Thrombocytopebia.”
- Olivier Rixe, MD, PhD, received $239K from Newlink Genetics for “A Phase I/II Study of the Combination of Indoximod and Temozolomide for Adult Patients with Temozolomide-Refractory Primary Malignant Brain Tumors.”
- Yousef Zakharia, MD, received $210K from Argos Therapeutics, Inc. for “An International Phase 3 Randomized Trial of Autologous Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy (AGS-003) Plus Standard Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (ADAPT).”
- Ravishankar B, Shinde R, Liu H, Chaudhary K, Bradley J, Lemos HP, Chandler P, Tanaka M, Munn DH, Mellor AL, McGaha TL. Marginal zone CD169+ macrophages coordinate apoptotic cell-driven cellular recruitment and tolerance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Mar 3. [Epub ahead of print]
- Bourgault AM, Heath J, Hooper V, Sole ML, Waller JL, Nesmith EG. Factors Influencing Critical Care Nurses’ Adoption of the AACN Practice Alert on Verification of Feeding Tube Placement. Am J Crit Care. 2014 Mar;23(2):134-44.
- Hashmi S, Rao SS, Summers RW, Schulze K. Esophageal pressure topography, body position, and hiatal hernia. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2014 Mar;48(3):224-30.
- Mason E, Van Rompaey J, Carrau R, Panizza B, Solares CA. Anatomical and computed tomographic analysis of the transcochlear and endoscopic transclival approaches to the petroclival region. Laryngoscope. 2014 Mar;124(3):628-36.
- Zheng Z, Wan Q, Meixiong G, Du Q. Cell cycle-regulated membrane binding of NuMA contributes to efficient anaphase chromosome separation. Mol Biol Cell. 2014 Mar;25(5):606-19.
- Zhu H, Pollock NK, Kotak I, Gutin B, Wang X, Bhagatwala J, Parikh S, Harshfield GA, Dong Y. Dietary sodium, adiposity, and inflammation in healthy adolescents. Pediatrics. 2014 Mar;133(3):e635-42.
- Nagato T, Lee YR, Harabuchi Y, Celis E. Combinatorial Immunotherapy of Polyinosinic-Polycytidylic Acid and Blockade of Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Induce Effective CD8 T-cell Responses against Established Tumors. Clin Cancer Res. 2014 Mar 1;20(5):1223-34.
- Ruble K, Davis CL, Han HR. Endothelial Health in Childhood Acute Lymphoid Leukemia Survivors: Pilot Evaluation With Peripheral Artery Tonometry. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2014 Feb 26. [Epub ahead of print]
- Lee YY, Yu S, Khurana S, Rao SS. Dietary Fiber and Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Fact or Hype? Gastroenterology. 2014 Feb 24. pii: S0016-5085(14)00155-3. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2013.12.043. [Epub ahead of print]
- Rahma OE, Hamilton JM, Wojtowicz M, Dakheel O, Bernstein S, Liewehr DJ, Steinberg SM, Khleif SN. The immunological and clinical effects of mutated ras peptide vaccine in combination with IL-2, GM-CSF, or both in patients with solid tumors. J Transl Med. 2014 Feb 24;12(1):55.
- Rafikov R, Dimitropoulou C, Aggarwal S, Kangath A, Gross C, Pardo D, Sharma S, Jezierska-Drutel A, Patel V, Snead C, Lucas R, Verin A, Fulton D, Catravas JD, Black SM. Lipopolysaccharide-induced Lung Injury Involves the Nitration-mediated Activation of RhoA. J Biol Chem. 2014 Feb 21;289(8):4710-22.
- Wei S, Wang H, Lu C, Malmut S, Zhang J, Ren S, Yu G, Wang W, Tang DD, Yan C. Activating Transcription Factor 3 Suppresses the Oncogenic Function of Mutant p53. J Biol Chem. 2014 Feb 19. [Epub ahead of print]
- Cao W, Ramakrishnan R, Tuyrin VA, Veglia F, Condamine T, Amoscato A, Mohammadyani D, Johnson JJ, Min Zhang L, Klein-Seetharaman J, Celis E, Kagan VE, Gabrilovich DI. Oxidized Lipids Block Antigen Cross-Presentation by Dendritic Cells in Cancer. J Immunol. 2014 Feb 19. [Epub ahead of print]
- Penwell-Waines L, Wilson CK, Macapagal KR, Valvano AK, Waller JL, West LM, Stepleman LM. Student perspectives on sexual health: implications for interprofessional education. J Interprof Care. 2014 Feb 18. [Epub ahead of print]
- Elangovan S, Pathania R, Ramachandran S, Ananth S, Padia RN, Lan L, Singh N, Martin PM, Hawthorn L, Prasad PD, Ganapathy V, Thangaraju M. The Niacin/Butyrate Receptor GPR109A Suppresses Mammary Tumorigenesis by Inhibiting Cell Survival. Cancer Res. 2014 Feb 15;74(4):1166-78.
- Eroglu B, Min JN, Zhang Y, Szurek E, Moskophidis D, Eroglu A, Mivechi NF. An essential role for heat shock transcription factor binding protein 1 (HSBP1) during early embryonic development. Dev Biol. 2014 Feb 15;386(2):448-60.
- Erion JR, Wosiski-Kuhn M, Dey A, Hao S, Davis CL, Pollock NK, Stranahan AM. Obesity elicits interleukin 1-mediated deficits in hippocampal synaptic plasticity. J Neurosci. 2014 Feb 12;34(7):2618-31.
- Zhu J, Shang Y, Wan Q, Xia Y, Chen J, Du Q, Zhang M. Phosphorylation-dependent interaction between tumor suppressors Dlg and Lgl. Cell Res. 2014 Feb 11. doi: 10.1038/cr.2014.16. [Epub ahead of print]
- Liu W, Tang FL, Erion J, Xiao H, Ye J, Xiong WC. Vps35 haploinsufficiency results in degenerative-like deficit in mouse retinal ganglion neurons and impairment of optic nerve injury-induced gliosis. Mol Brain. 2014 Feb 11;7(1):10. [Epub ahead of print]
- Mehta SH, Switzer JA, Biddinger P, Rojiani AM. IgG4-related leptomeningitis: A reversible cause of rapidly progressive cognitive decline. Neurology. 2014 Feb 11;82(6):540-2.
- Jayakumar C, Nauta FL, Bakker SJ, Bilo H, Gansevoort RT, Johnson MH, Ramesh G. Netrin-1, a urinary proximal tubular injury marker, is elevated early in the time course of human diabetes. J Nephrol. 2014 Feb 8. [Epub ahead of print]