The Cancer Research Foundation: Newsletters

Each year, the Cancer Research Foundation accepts grant requests from young men andwomen engaged in first-projectlaboratory and/or clinical cancer research. These proposals come to the Foundation already reviewed and
ranked by a faculty awards committee, using the National Institutes of Health peer review process. Only the innovative and bold proposals with practicable research plans are considered for funding.

After receipt by the Foundation, our medical consultants, Dr. Joseph B.Kirsner and Dr. Richard L. Schilsky, interpret the complex science to the trustees. Cancer Research Foundation trustees make all funding decisions.

Last October, three young scientists from the University of Chicago Medical Center were awarded young investigator grants:

A Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator from the Unversity of Chicago, class of 2002, applied for 2nd year funding, which was approved for six months:

These awards are for one year. At the end of the year, if the hypotheses have proven worthy of further study, this early research will be used as a basis for application for major outside funding.

Xiaobing Fan, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Radiology
$49,997. grant award

THE USE OF DYNAMIC CONTRAST-ENHANCED MRI TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN RODENT METASTATIC AND NONMETASTATIC PROSTATE TUMORS: COMPARING LOW, MEDIUM AND HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT CONTRACT AGENTS

Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to greatly improve the detection and staging of cancer. The rate at which intravenous contrast agent is taken up and washed out of tissue yields important information relating to blood flow thatdistinguishes dangerous cancers from benign conditions.However, the clinical use of MRI requires accurate mathematicalanalysis of the uptake and washout ofcontrast agents. The methods for analysis that are currently available are not effective. In this project, a new empirical mathematical model for the kinetics of contrast agent uptake and washout detected by MRI will be developed and tested. If the proposed research is successful, the model could be used clinically to analyze patient data and have a significant impact on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Barbara Lynne Kee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology
$50,000. grant award

REGULATION OF E2A PROTEINS
BY THE PHOSPHATIDYL INOSITOL
3-KINASE PATHWAY

Dr. Kee is named the Raymond F.
Zelko Young Investigator in memory of the Foundation business manager who died of cancer in 1993.

The E2A proteins are important in blood cell formation. We know
this because mice and human cells that lack these proteins acquire severe immune deficiency and T cell lymphomas. In order to understand how blood cell development is controlled, we propose a series of experiments designed to determine how E2A protein expression is maintained in the precursors of mature blood cells. This information will be essential to evaluate the utility of future therapeutic interventions in T cell lymphoma and possible other cancers and diseases.

Hong Ming Shen, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Molecular Genetics
and Cell Biology
$50,000. grant award

INVESTIGATION OF MUTATING T CELLS AND ACTIVATIONINDUCED CYTIDINE DEAMINASE FUNCTION

Somatic hypermutation is highly linked to lymphomagenesis. Mutations are able to either silence or activate a gene, causing loss of function or overexpression of the gene.

Lymphocytes are white blood cells that normally make up about 25% of the total white blood cell count. They occur in two forms: B cells, the chief agent of the humoral immune system, and T cells, the agents of the cellmediated immune system.

In past studies, a particular gene, BCL-6, has been shown to be highly mutated in both B and T lymphocytes.The factor that causes this is an enzyme called activation-induced cytidine deaminase. This search for the mutation mechanism will help further understanding the relationship between somatic hypermutation and tumor formation.

Mark D. McKee, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Surgery
$25,000. grant award

TRANSFER OF MURINE T CELL
RECEPTOR GENES TO HUMAN
LYMPHOCYTES FOR
RECOGNITION OF HUMAN
TUMORS

Cancer vaccines: A naturalimmune response occurs to many human tumors, but this response is rarely strong enough to slow or prevent the growth of the cancer in patients. Dr. McKee hopes to amplify the natural immune response against many common cancers by identifying the genes that allow immune recognition of proteins found on tumor cells. He has efforts ongoing to identify these genes from human cells, and proposes to identify similar genes from a special mouse strain that carries elements of the human immune system. Human proteins are seen as foreign by mice, and their immune response against these proteins is stronger than the corresponding response of the human immune system. Once Dr. McKee has identified mouse genes that recognize human cancer proteins, he will test his ability to transfer these genes to human immune cells.