Lander Talks Cancer Genomics at AACR Meeting

April 20, 2009

By Andrea Anderson

Broad Institute Founder Eric Lander outlined the past and future of cancer genome research this weekend at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting.

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Young Investigator Profile

Sumit Chanda

Associate Professor
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Unraveling Complex Host-Pathogen

The Chanda lab is studying cellular proteins required for both influenza A and retrovirus/HIV infection as well as novel molecules that regulate, or respond to, Pattern Recognition Receptor (PRR) signaling. In order to elucidate the repertoire of host proteins required for viral infection, and understand the molecular strategies adapted by these viruses as countermeasures to innate immune response, his lab uses a series of systems-level approaches, including genome-wide RNAi, proteomics and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis, and high content imaging. This approach is helping them to build a comprehensive cellular 'roadmap' exploited by these viruses to enable their propagation within a cell.
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Papers of Note

Regulation and Function of miR-218 in Gastric Cancer Metastasis
Tie, Pan et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers describe a negative feedback system between Robo1, a Slit receptor, and miR-218, wherein “decreased miR-218 levels eliminate Robo1 repression, which activates the Slit-Robo1 pathway through the interaction between Robo1 and Slit2, thus triggering tumor metastasis.” The authors suggest that the restoration of miR-218 supresses Robo1 espression and inhibits tumor cell invasion.

Method to Label and Isolate N-terminal Peptides from Human Plasma
Wildes and Wells, PNAS
A pair of researchers report their method to “dramatically reduce the complexity” of human serum samples by eliminating internal peptides. The authors write that, with their method, it's possible to identify substrates from specific proteases with the exogenous addition of the protease along with N-terminal isolation and quantitative mass spectrometry.
People on the Move

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Professor Leena Peltonen-Palotie died this week of cancer at her home in Finland, according to the Sanger Institute. Peltonen-Palotie was head of human genetics at Wellcome Trust, and she held appointments at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.

Three leaders from the Human Genome Project — David Botstein, Francis Collins, and Eric Lander — have been named co-winners of the 2010 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, which carries with it a purse of $500,000.

Adrian Dillon will resign from his job as executive VP of finance and administration and CFO of Agilent Technologies to become chief financial and administrative officer at Skype. He will be replaced at the beginning of April by Didier Hirsch, who currently is VP of corporate controllership and taxes and who will serve as acting CFO.
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PTEN Pathways & Targets
Mar. 16-20 / Cold Spring Harbor, NY
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The Complex Life of mRNA: From Synthesis to Decay
Mar. 18-19 / Heidelberg, Germany
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Perspectives in Clinical Proteomics
Mar. 18-19 / Hinxton, UK
EMBL-EBI-Wellcome Trust

AUTM 2010 Annual Meeting
Mar. 18-20 / New Orleans, La.
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Science
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Business
Bruker will acquire certain mass spectrometry and chromatography product lines from Varian, clearing the way for Agilent to complete its $1.5 billion acquisition of Varian. The divestitures were part of conditions set by EU authorities for approval of the merger.
Funding
HHS expects that in 2010 NIH will spend another roughly $5.2 billion overall in stimulus funds that were left over from ARRA's first year. NIH still has more than $1.6 billion to spend in stimulus funds for lab construction and renovation, buildings and facilities, and shared instruments.
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Lander Talks Cancer Genomics at AACR Meeting

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