Spring 2000 Newsletter: Cancer Research Foundation Fletcher Scholar: Edwin L. Ferguson, Jr. Ph.D.

"Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Stem Cells and
Their Use in Cancer Therapy"

Edwin L. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.D., University of Chicago Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cellular Biology, has been named the Fletcher Scholar 2000. Dr. Ferguson, who chairs the Committee on Developmental Biology, and serves on the Committees on Genetics and Cancer Biology, is the sixth Cancer Research Foundation Fletcher Scholar.

The Fletcher Scholar Award was created by an endowment established by Eugene and Dorothy Fletcher, of Lemont, Illinois, as a part of their estate. Income earned from the endowment funds this $100,000 grant to a senior cancer researcher to support a distinctive and timely laboratory research project.

"In every individual, certain cell types are replaced routinely throughout the adult life. There must be particular types of cells in an adult that are capable of continually dividing to generate classes of differentiated cells. Such cells, called adult stem cells, are undifferentiated cells that have a dual capacity: they have the capability of undergoing a self-renewal division to produce two descendants like themselves, or they can divide to produce descendants that cease division and differentiate into a defined cell type."

"In this research, I propose a series of novel experiments that should lead to our ability to culture a pure population of stem cells. If our experiments are successful, we will also be able to control the ability of the stem cell to undergo a self-renewal division or to differentiate. Thus, we will be in a position to ask, and answer, fundamental questions about stem cell renewal and differentiation."

Dr. Anthony P. Mahowald, Louis Block Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, tells us that Dr. Ferguson "has established himself as one of the foremost developmental geneticists in the country and his work continues to break new ground in understanding mechanistic issues. Throughout his work, Dr. Ferguson has shown both amazing imagination in designing experiments, unusual care in performance, and persistence in achieving quality results."