Checking Cancer: Longmore pursues winning goals, on and of the ice

He's Canadian, he plays hockey and he has had a brush with Olympic glory. That's Gregory D. Longmore, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology.

No, he didn't play on an Olympic hockey team. Longmore's ice time is more recreational than professional, but he once conducted scientific research that cast new light on the athletic prowess of an Olympic gold medalist.

In the early 1990s as a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Longmore found a genetic mutation in a red blood cell hormone receptor that caused mice to produce extra red blood cells. Then, while in Finland to give a scientific presentation, he met a clinician who happened to be studying an extended family with many members having high red blood cell counts.

One of them was Eero Mäntyranta, a famous Finnish athlete who won a dozen or so Olympic and world championship medals in cross-country skiing in the 1960s. Longmore's genetic discovery intrigued the clinician and a geneticist at the University of Helsinki, Finland, who decided they should look at the same gene in the skier and his kin...

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Kharasch named vice chancellor for research

Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD, the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, has been appointed vice chancellor for research at Washington University in St. Louis, effective April 5. He had served as interim vice chancellor since July 2009.

Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton made the announcement.

“I want to thank Ed Macias and the search committee, chaired by Professor Deanna Barch, for their efforts," Wrighton says. “After several months of outstanding work in an interim role, we are pleased that Evan Kharasch has accepted this position permanently and know that he will serve and lead with distinction.”

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Retired NFL players being treated by WUSTL neurologists

Washington University neurologists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital will be part of a new neurological care program for retired professional football players, the National Football League and NFL Alumni Association announced March 24.
The program, one of a series of NFL initiatives addressing the quality of life of retired players, makes available neurological specialists at five leading medical centers nationwide, including Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, to evaluate and treat possible neurological conditions. Each center will make available to retired NFL players a team of specialists, led by a neurologist who will serve as a program director.

David Brody, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology, will direct the St. Louis branch.
"We're honored that the NFL selected us to participate and hope it will be an opportunity for us to contribute to a greater understanding of the aftereffects of repetitive concussive brain injuries and how best to treat them," Brody says. "We also hope that this initiative will raise public awareness of traumatic brain injury and the need for treatment and rehabilitation."

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Siteman Cancer Center receives SPORE grant to study endometrial cancer

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded the Siteman Cancer Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis a prestigious Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in endometrial cancer.

Endometrial cancer, which forms in the tissue lining the uterus, is the most common gynecologic cancer. Last year, about 42,000 women were diagnosed with the disease and almost 8,000 women with endometrial cancer died.

The majority of women diagnosed with endometrial cancer are 45 years or older.

The prognosis of surviving endometrial cancer is good when the disease is detected and treated early. However, if the cancer has spread from the uterus, the chances to treat it successfully are small.

The goal of SPORE grants is to implement a strong collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians. The three-year, $1.7 million SPORE grant in endometrial cancer brings together School of Medicine experts in genomics, diagnostics and developmental therapeutics to tackle research projects that can be translated quickly into improved detection and treatment of this type of cancer. This research involves both cancer patients and populations at risk for cancer.

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YSP Neuro Team on the Road

YSP Neuro Team volunteers recently visited Cholla High School in Tucson, AZ. The team brought their creative, interactive teaching techniques developed throughout many years of visiting St. Louis high schools to this Tucson classroom in partnership with grad students from the University of Arizona. These DBBS students were in the southwest attending the spring brain conference.

Please visit the link below to see the story and video clip done in Tucson, AZ about the YSP Neuro team http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=12160306

Genomic data center receives $14 million stimulus grant to expand

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received a $14.3 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to expand its high-powered data center for genomics. The facility’s sophisticated computer networks store massive amounts of genomic data used to identify the genetic origins of cancer and other diseases.
The project is expected to create more than 350 jobs, including 200 in local construction, and accelerate the pace of genomics-based discoveries, for which Washington University is widely known.
The university’s scientists have pioneered the sequencing of cancer patients’ genomes and are engaged in ambitious research to decode the genomes of hundreds of microbes that inhabit the body.
“These projects are helping scientists worldwide understand the genetic basis of cancer and the contributions of microbes to human health and disease,” says Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “We could not continue this vital research without expanding the data center, which houses the computer infrastructure that allows our scientists to analyze unprecedented volumes of data.”
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New subtype of breast cancer responds to targeted drug

A newly identified cancer biomarker could define a new subtype of breast cancer as well as offer a potential way to treat it, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their findings will be published in the March 1 online early edition issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research could further refine what recent breast cancer research has concluded: that breast cancer is not one disease, but many. So far, research has firmly established that at least five subtypes of breast cancer exist, each having distinct biological features, clinical outcomes and responses to traditional therapies.

The biomarker identified by the Washington University researchers is found frequently in breast cancers and especially in those that have poorer outcomes. It stems from overactivation of a gene called LRP6 (low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6), which stimulates an important cell-growth signaling pathway. LRP6 can be inhibited by a protein discovered in the same laboratory, which could become an effective drug against the breast cancer type, the researchers say.

"We found increased expression of the LRP6 gene in about a quarter of breast cancer specimens we examined, and we think LRP6 overexpression could be a marker for a new class of breast cancer," says Guojun Bu, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and of cell biology and physiology. "In addition, we found that this biomarker is often associated with breast cancers that are either harder to treat or more likely to recur. We already have an agent that seems to be effective against LRP6-overexpressing tumors, which could someday become a therapy for tumors that right now have few treatment options."

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