Discoveries in the Bredel Laboratory Lead to New Understanding of How Glioblastomas

Develop and Grow

I believe we have an ethical responsibility to tell patients as much as possible about their

disease.” This statement by Markus Bredel, MD, director of the North‐

western Brain Tumor Institute research program and assistant professor of neurological sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, lies at the heart of the research he conducts in his laboratory. Bredel studies the genetic makeup of glioblastomas, the most aggressive form of brain tumors, with the aim of developing new therapeutics for pa‐tients diagnosed with this nearly uniformly lethal disease and of iden‐tifying new tools for predicting how well an individual patient will respond to a particular treatment regimen. “Even tumors that look alike on pathology reports do not tell us much about the prognosis of that patient,” Bredel says. “If we’re able to predict

upfront that a tumor is going to be particularly aggressive, it may affect the treatment of that patient. “And by applying therapeutics to the

particular genetic makeup of a tumor, we will improve treatment efficacy, pre‐vent unnecessary toxicity to the patient and help reduce the cost of the some‐times prohibitively expensive treatment of the disease.” The ultimate result of his research, Bredel says, is a reversal in the mortality rate of the disease. “Our goal is to alter the natural course of the disease, to transform it into a chronic disease and — as a dream on the horizon — to eventually cure it,” he says. To reach this goal, Bredel and his team started by exploring the basics. Scientists currently know very little about how brain tumors occur, though

(Continued on page 2)

In This Issue ...

2 New faculty

3 Feinberg announces critical power supply plan

Animal corner

4 Faculty profile: Dr. Donald Lloyd‐Jones

5 Student profile: Laty Cahoon

6 Staff profile: Nicole Mladic

7 A look at LatticeGrid

8 News

9 Sponsored research

12 Funding opportunities

13 Events

October 2009

CONNECT WITH FEINBERG

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Feinberg

FSM Research

Members of the Bredel Laboratory: Dr. Markus Bredel, P.J. Lukac, Dr. Ajay Yadav

FSM Researcher October 2009

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they are one of the most biolo‐gically complex cancers invol‐ving changes in thousands of genes. Resear‐chers have ob‐served distinct genome changes in patients with glioblastomas; in his first study Bredel set about

characterizing those changes and their functional interplay. “We wanted to have a system‐biology approach, to start with a global view, a genome‐wide analysis, and move from that to a few workable hypotheses regarding the development of the disease,” Bredel says. He and his colleagues first looked at the molecular levels and genetic profiles of more than 500 brain tumors from patients across the country as well as the clinical profiles of those patients to identify a network of mutated genes that allow brain tumors to flourish. They discovered 31 key mutated genes that comprise a tumor’s primary network. “These genes are the commanders in a tumor’s army, so to speak,” Bredel says. In a subsequent study, Bredel explored the interplay of two gene mutations

that were prevalent in a majority of the patients in his first study. The study differed significantly from previous re‐search in this area because it explored the hypothesis that the development and growth of brain tumors depends more on the interplay of certain genes than on any one gene itself, Bredel says. “Network modeling approaches are critical to the understanding of complex diseases, such as cancers, in which causative genes and proteins do not operate in isolation, but rather their interactions account for the disease process,” he says. The relationship investigated in the second study centered on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), an e‐stablished player in the formation of tumors and a known oncogene, and Annexin 7, a potential tumor sup‐pressor gene. In nearly half of glioblastoma patients, EGFR is mutated and abnormally activated. Bredel discovered that the other gene, Annexin A7, regulates the EGFR gene. But for 75 percent of the patients he studied, the gene that houses Annexin A7, chromosome 10, was completely destroyed. “When we looked at the genes and saw that Annexin A7 was suppressed in 75 percent of cases, that’s when we first believed there was meat on the bone, that we were onto something,” Bredel says.

In the laboratory, Bredel tested the relationship between EGFR and Annexin A7 to try to understand exactly how they affected the tumor. Working with brain tumor cells, Bredel increased the level of EGFR and, in parallel, knocked out Annexin 7. The tumor cells grew much faster compared to tumor cells in which only one gene was modified. “It’s like a ‘buy two get one free’ sale,” Bredel says. “The tumor says, ‘I’m making a good deal. I’m going to buy these two mutations because it’s going to be very rewarding for me.” The study also showed that the presence and quantity of Annexin 7 in a malignant tumor accurately predicts how long a glioblastoma patient will survive. The more Annexin 7, the more restrictions on the tumor growth and the longer the survival. “Understanding the key role of Annexin A7 in malignant brain tumor offers the opportunity for a new therapeutic target,” Bredel says. “The challenge is now that we’ve established that this gene is important, how can we modulate it through molecular cancer therapy?” The results of both of Bredel’s studies were published in the July 15, 2009 is‐sue of the Journal of the American Med­ical Association. Learn more about the Bredel Laboratory by visiting: www.bredel.northwestern.edu/index.html

(Continued from page 1)

Dr. Markus Bredel

WELCOME NEW FACULTY Christopher Payne, PhD, joins the Children’s Memorial Human Molecular Genetics Program as assistant professor of pediatrics. He re‐ceived his doctoral degree in cell and develop‐ment biology at Oregon Health and Science University, and completed his senior fellow‐ship at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He was most recently a post‐doctoral fellow in the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Liang Zhou, MD, PhD, joins as assistant pro‐fessor of pathology and microbiology and im‐munology. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Nanjing Medical University, Chi‐na, and his doctorate degree from the Univer‐sity of California, Los Angeles. He recently completed his research fellowship at New York University.

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FSM Researcher October 2009

In response to historic power failures which affected the Feinberg commu‐nity in December 2008 and May 2009, the Feinberg School of Medicine Office for Research and Northwestern Univer‐sity Facilities Management have an‐nounced a multimillion dollar commit‐ment during the 2009‐2010 academic year to upgrade the electrical system to provide sufficient emergency power for critical lab equipment in Ward, Morton, Searle, and Tarry buildings. “This upgrade is vital to protect the work of faculty investigators,” says Eric Boberg, PhD, Feinberg Executive Direc‐tor for Research. “Invaluable samples generated over entire careers are stor‐ed in the school’s freezers.” Boberg estimates the affected buildings account for half of the laboratory space in the medical school. The upgrade is the result of a directive issued by Feinberg Dean J. Larry Jame‐son to implement sufficient back‐up for all buildings during the 2009‐2010 aca‐demic year. In May, Feinberg, with Northwestern University Facilities Man‐agement Operations Electrical Shop and Facilities Management Design and Construction, embarked on an intense five‐month planning process to find solutions. Today, Boberg is pleased to announce work has started on this im‐portant project. “It’s an essential part of a modern academic medical center,” he says.

The project, named the Critical Re‐search Equipment Power Supply (CREPS) plan, involves two phases. Ac‐cording to Jay Baehr, Northwestern University Facilities Management De‐sign and Construction senior project manager, phase one starts in October 2009 and will include: Installation of a new generator

hookup for a 1,500KW three‐phase 277/480 volt 2200 amp diesel gen‐erator set (approximately 10 hours of run time at full load) at Tarry Loading Dock

Connection of new generator hook‐up to the existing Tarry Building switchgear

Connection of a series of new feed‐ers from the existing Tarry switch‐gear to existing Ward, Morton and Searle switches for general power risers (i.e. electrical outlets in labs)

In the event of an unplanned power outage, the generator trailer, which will be contracted on standby basis, will be brought to loading dock and set up within three hours of notice. Phase one is scheduled to be completed by Janu‐ary 1, 2010, according to Boberg.

With an interim solution in place, the goal of phase two is “to create a perma‐nent connection to link Ward, Morton, Searle, and Tarry buildings to Lurie building generators so that limited critical equipment could remain pow‐ered in the event of a power loss for any or all ComEd grid feeds,” says Bo‐berg. Phase two is scheduled to be completed by September 1, 2010. During phase two, the project team will continue working with electrical engi‐neering consultants to design a link from existing Lurie generators to the newly installed connecting feeders be‐tween Ward, Morton, Searle, and Tarry Buildings under a predetermined load‐shedding protocol. “The project will also include an alter‐nate design for a complete automatic system to enable switching between existing Northwestern switchgear for the individual buildings, which is fed through ComEd grid points in Tarry and Weibolt vaults. This will allow Feinberg to take advantage of available power during unplanned outages or planned service outages for repairs and maintenance,” says Baehr. Funding for the CREPS plan comes jointly from the Northwestern Facili‐ties R&R Budget and the Feinberg Ren‐ovation Fund.

Feinberg Announces Critical Power Supply Plan

“Invaluable samples gener­ated over entire careers are stored in the school’s freezers.”

­ Dr. Eric Boberg

ANIMAL RESEARCH CORNER

O n a typical day, the Center for Comparative Medicine (CCM) houses approximately 18,000 cages of mice between the Chicago and Evanston campuses. With an

average of 3.5 mice per cage, that adds up to an awful lot of mice. Occasionally the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or CCM gets a report of an escaped mouse running around lab spaces. Even with due diligence in transporting and working with mice, an escape is bound to happen given the sheer number of animals housed. Should this happen, your natural reaction might be to jump on a chair and call for help or to attempt to capture the escapee. What you should do is

contact the professionals. Contact CCM immediately by calling one of the following: Lurie Front Desk: 8­8257 Chicago Supervisor, Carolyn Pelham: 3­1074 Chicago Supervisor, Giovanni Pompilio: 3­1199 Evanston Supervisor, Romulo Trovela: 7­6215 CCM will assist you with assessing the situation and coming up with the best and most humane way to resolve the problem. Just remember, try to prevent the escape before it happens: use caution when transporting animal cages, never place animal cages on the floor, exert caution when handling animals, and always keep the animal’s tail in your grasp when you hold mice.

FSM Researcher October 2009

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Since joining the Feinberg School of Medicine faculty in 2004, Donald Lloyd‐Jones, MD, ScM, associate professor of preventive medicine and medicine and interim medical director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute Clinical Trials Unit, has made quite an impact. Among his honors, Lloyd‐Jones received the American Society of Hypertension Young Scholar Award in 2004, the Car‐diology Teaching Award, Division of Cardiology, in 2006, two Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Feinberg Department of Medicine in 2006 and 2007, and in 2009 was named the Roy Patterson Teacher of the Year, for the Department of Medicine. But honors only tell part of Lloyd‐Jones’ story. A prolific researcher, he has published more than 85 papers in peer‐reviewed publications during his career and currently serves a major role in 10 ongoing research grants. He is a fellow of the American Heart Asso‐ciation (AHA) and chair of AHA’s Sta‐tistics Committee and the Working Group for 2020 Strategic Goals. He is a member of the National Lipid Asso‐ciation, the American Society of Hyper‐tension, and the Cardiovascular Health Study, where he serves on the steering

committee. Lloyd‐Jones is also is a member of the NHLBI’s Risk Assess‐ment Work Group, ATP‐IV, and In‐tegrated Guidelines Panels. And, de‐spite his many appointments and hon‐ors, he continues to serve as a mentor to many young researchers at Feinberg. FSM Researcher caught up with this avid Yankees fan to learn more about his research interests and upcoming projects. What are your research interests? Using data from large epidemiologic databases, I work on estimating short‐ and long‐term risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The point is to identify and more effectively communicate with those individuals who would benefit from more intensive preventive efforts. We are now exploring ways to implement more effective risk screen‐ing in clinical and population settings. At the same time, we have identified a subgroup of the population that ap‐pears to be at very low risk for developing clinical cardiovascular dis‐ease events. They still develop athe‐rosclerosis, but they do not appear to convert it into clinical events. This very interesting group is the subject of some of our new mechanistic investigations. It is really exciting to be able to study basic disease mechanisms from the population perspective, with modal‐ities we didn’t have available even a decade ago. What projects are currently underway? Right now, a large amount of my work is focused on a project called the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project. We have pulled together data from 17 large, U.S.‐based cohort stu‐dies in order to estimate lifetime risks for selected cardiovascular endpoints, to compare lifetime risks between different sex and race groups, and to understand factors that influence long‐term and lifetime risks for CVD.

We are also pursuing projects that examine biomarkers and imaging modalities to define mechanisms of protection against the development of clinical CVD events, and also to identify those who may be at very high risk for imminent acute coronary events. What is the ultimate goal of your research? Ultimately, we would like to be able to target preventive efforts to high‐risk individuals, intervening on those path‐ways and risk factors that will have the most impact in individuals. At the same time, we must find ways to implement more effective public health inter‐ventions to improve the health of the whole population, since almost all of us are at some risk for developing cardio‐vascular disease. What are some of the challenges you face? One of my most rewarding activities is mentoring. I wish I could give all of the bright young people I work with more time! I think we all struggle with finding the right balance. Why did you join Northwestern? I came to Feinberg almost six years ago for several reasons. First, when Drs. Philip Greenland and Robert Bonow call with a good job offer, you take that call! I was excited by the research and mentoring possibilities here. I was also impressed by the very positive momen‐tum that FSM had going for it, with great new infrastructure and key per‐sonnel in place and being recruited. My high expectations have been greatly exceeded, and I think it is a really exciting place to come to work every day. To learn more about Lloyd­Jones’ research, visit: http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/ctu/

Dr. Donald Lloyd‐Jones, Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine

Meet Donald Lloyd‐Jones MD, ScM, Associate Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Medicine, Interim Medical Director, Clinical Trials Unit, Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute

FSM Researcher October 2009

Student Profile: Laty Cahoon, Integrated Graduate Program in Life Sciences (IGP)

Where is your hometown? My hometown is Sun Valley, Calif. which is in the San Fernando Valley and part of Los Angeles County. I was born in Sun Valley and went to elementary, middle, and high school there. Where did you go for your undergrad­uate degree? I was fortunate enough to merit a scholarship to UCLA and was able to complete a bachelor’s degree in microbiology, immunology, and mo‐lecular genetics with a minor in Latin American studies. UCLA is a wonderful university with a beautiful campus. What are your research interests? My current research interests are the molecular mechanisms required for pilin antigenic variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The bacterium is the sole causative agent of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, and antigenic variation enables the or‐ganism to evade the host immune re‐sponse. What exciting projects are you working on? My most exciting project has led me to a Science paper. In this paper, my mentor H. Steven Seifert and I show that the first site found to be necessary for pilin antigenic variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae forms an alternative DNA structure known as a guanine quartet (G4). These structures have been pro‐ven to exist in vitro but evidence for their existence in vivo has been lacking. We show that formation of the guanine quartet structure is required for the homologous recombination events leading to pilin antigenic variation in vivo. Currently, I’m conducting experiments to determine what process allows the structure to form in vivo.

What attracted you to the IGP program? I chose the IGP after my graduate school interview because I found the faculty to be extremely intelligent and very approachable. Additionally, the administrators, especially the associate director of the IGP, Steve Anderson, and faculty, such as my mentor H. Ste‐ven Seifert, are dedicated to the suc‐cess and well‐being of the program’s students. How often do you travel between the Evanston and Chicago campuses? Well, about every other month I travel from the Chicago campus to the Evanston campus. I travel to Evanston to use the Biophysics Core Facility and for my Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease training grant meetings.

How would you describe the faculty at Feinberg? The faculty at Feinberg are wonderful, intelligent, insightful people who care about the well‐being of the students. They are very approachable and want their students to succeed. For example, my mentor H. Steven Seifert is devoted to helping his students become well trained scientists, and I would not be at this point in my career if it was not for his knowledge and support. What has been your best (or worst) experience at Feinberg so far? I have had many great experiences and I am lucky to be an IGP graduate student. I enjoy doing experiments, interacting with my mentor, lab mates, and fellow students. I really have no complaints. I’m happy I chose the IGP, and I’m happy I live in Chicago (even when it’s cold). I’m very lucky that I merited a training grant, that my research has led to a Science paper, and that I have been able to attend and present my work at a number of conferences, including the Pathogenic Neisseria Conference in the Nether‐lands. What do you like to do for fun? I enjoy spending time with friends, playing with my dog, going to the movies, reading horror novels, drawing and painting. I love walking around Chicago because the city is a beautiful place. I think it is very important to have a balance between lab life and non‐lab life. What are your plans for after graduation? I’m planning to do a post doc because I hope to have my own lab someday. Although, I know I will be sad to leave Northwestern.

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Laty Cahoon, IGP, published her findings in the journal Science.

“The faculty at Feinberg are wonderful, intelligent, in­sightful people who care about the well­being of the students.”

Page 5

Connections Need to reach the Office of Communications? Here’s how to connect with Nicole: E‐mail: n‐mladic@northwestern.edu Twitter: @NUFeinbergMed LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nmladic To read more about the Office of Communica‐tions, click here.

FSM Researcher October 2009

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Staff Profile: Nicole Mladic, Communications Director—Research and Faculty Office of Communications, Feinberg School of Medicine

Meet Nicole Mladic, communications director focusing on faculty and re‐search in the Office of Commun‐ications. Nicole joins Kristin Jacobsen as co‐editor of the FSM Researcher. How long have you been at NU? I started at Feinberg in August 2009, but prior to joining Northwestern full‐time, I served as a communications consultant for the Kellogg School of Management from 2004 to 2009. Where are you from? I’ve lived in the Chicago area my whole life. For those familiar with the city, I grew up in Pilsen, near 22nd St. and Damen, and also near Midway Airport. I now reside in Oak Park, a gorgeous suburb known to architecture buffs for its abundance of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. What’s your educational background? I attended Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., where I earned a bachelor’s degree in communications, with minors in marketing and Spanish.

Why did you choose to work here? I came from a global communications agency, where I worked on a variety of education and healthcare clients, in‐cluding the Kellogg School, U.S. Army Healthcare, Purdue University, Procter & Gamble, Novartis and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The opportunity to work at Feinberg was a chance to bridge my interests in healthcare and education, in an institute rich with tradition and synonymous with Chicago. As if that weren’t enough, when I interviewed everyone seemed passionate about the school’s mission and happy with their jobs. You don’t find that often in the corporate world, especially in today’s economy. What is your role at the department? My role in the Office of Commun‐ications is to help faculty share research with internal and external audiences, and build community within the medical school. Our team can spread the word through a number of vehicles, including our web site, newsletters, magazines, online calen‐dars, social networks, and more. The goal is to facilitate collaboration among all our communities, within and across disciplines, to make it easy to find colleagues and peers and deepen connections. Ultimately, I believe strengthening our communications network will move us closer to Dean Jameson’s vision of alignment, innovation, and impact, and help keep our community connected across geographies and life stages.

Who should contact you with requests? Anyone who has information for the research newsletter can contact me via e‐mail at n‐mladic@northwestern.edu. I can also put researchers in touch with our communications team if they have news or events to share via the Feinberg web site, social networks, or community outreach. What are your favorite books or movies? Too many to name. I’m constantly reading multiple books at once (fiction and nonfiction), while simultaneously reading blogs and news sites. You can check out my virtual bookshelf here. And, I must mention, I’m a huge fan of the TV show LOST. What do you like do to in your free time? I’m a traveler. I try to take as many trips as I can each year and tour scenic or historic places, or get active and hike, bike or kayak. Having lived in Chicago for so long, I get a little restless through our long winters. When I’m not traveling, I maintain a love/hate relationship with running and usually manage to complete sev‐eral races per year before swearing off the sport entirely each winter and picking it up again in the spring.

Nicole Mladic, Communications Director, Feinberg School of Medicine

Call for Images The Office of Communications is developing an inventory of research‐related images and videos that convey work being conducted at Feinberg for use in the FSM Researcher, on the Feinberg Office for Research web site and on social networking sites. Please share high‐quality photos, illustrations, animations, visualizations, or video files with Nicole Mladic at n‐mladic@northwestern.edu.

FSM Researcher October 2009

A Look at LatticeGrid: Finding New Collaborations is Easier with Social Networking Aimed at Feinberg Researchers

Page 7

The NUCATS Biomedical Informatics Center (NUBIC) has launched a new online knowledge management system linking researchers from disparate dis‐ciplines. Developed at Feinberg by a team led by Warren Kibbe, associate director of NUBIC, director of bioinformatics in the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, and research associate profes‐sor in the Center for Genetic Medicine, the system, LatticeGrid, builds on the capabilities of existing social network‐ing and knowledge management plat‐forms. LatticeGrid assesses collaboration pat‐terns using institutional and public data such as PubMed, eIRB, and pre‐ and post‐award systems. LatticeGrid integrates and visual‐

izes these data around organiza‐tional constructs such as centers and departments to build models of collaboration patterns.

LatticeGrid is interoperable with other collaboration tools such as

the Harvard Profiles system. How‐ever, LatticeGrid is uniquely able to define collaboration teams “on the fly” and provides multiple ways to represent and map physical and virtual relationships between in‐vestigators.

LatticeGrid models also enable evi‐dence‐based decisions about how best to manage and direct organizational change in order to maximize the effec‐tiveness of translational science initia‐tives. To this effort, LatticeGrid enables biomedical research organizations to monitor and measure more effectively collaboration and funding patterns and assess the effect of organizational and policy change. Understanding how shifts in institu‐tional structure and policy affect trans‐lational science patterns of collabora‐tion and funding is fundamentally im‐portant to the biomedical research co‐mmunity and the goals of the NUCATS Institute. This knowledge provides a mechanism to evaluate the return on investment in team science efforts.

The core of LatticeGrid can be viewed on the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern Univer‐sity web site: http://LatticeGrid.cancer.northwestern.edu and at the Feinberg web site at: http://pubs.feinberg.northwestern.edu/ The LatticeGrid system is and will con‐tinue to be open source to allow shar‐ing with other Clinical and Transla‐tional Science Award (CTSA) institu‐tions. “Managing and tracking publications have always been a challenge for re‐search universities. The NUBIC team saw the potential for an open source solution in addressing this need, and LatticeGrid is the result,” says Kibbe. “We’ve had great response from the biomedical research user community so far and plan enhancements as we incorporate their feedback and ideas for enhancements to the application,” Kibbe says.

LatticeGrid Capabilities Snapshot

1. Identify the network of collaborations that cur‐rently exist in a biomedical research organization.

2. Highlight the expertise and existing collabora‐tion patterns for an individual in that organization.

3. Analyze changes in the pattern of collaboration for a given individual, virtual organizational unit, academic unit, or other organizational structure.

4. Facilitate the application of this information to the promotion and support of intra‐ and inter‐ institutional collaboration.

The New Core Human Embryonic and iPS Cell Facility is Now Open and Ready for Your Orders

The facility is offering a range of services, from using our clean, super‐sterile and perfectly equipped space, to providing cultured hES cells that you can use

directly in your experiments. We can also culture your iPS cells for you.

We are also offering hands‐on classes on the basic techniques of culturing human embryonic stem cells.

The following list is a sample of prices for Northwestern users. Additional and

customized services can be arranged.

6‐well plate of hESC on the feeder $70 each

Three Matrigel hESC with conditioned media $250 for three

1 vial of frozen irradiated feeder cells (approx. 9 mln. cells)

$45 each

One hour of using the facility $10

One hour of using the facility, if using supplies from the facility

$25

Two half‐days hands‐on hESC culturing class $450 per person

The Stem Cell Facility is located at the Chicago Campus: Lurie Building., 10‐234 303 E. Superior Chicago, IL 60611

Please contact: Ljuba Lyass, PhD Stem Cell Facility Director Department of Neurology Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University 303 E. Superior Avenue, Lurie, 10‐232 Chicago, IL 60611‐3008 (312) 503‐1039 l‐lyass@northwestern.edu

FSM Researcher October 2009

FSM Research in the News

CBS News (National) September 1 Cancer researcher fights for his own life Dr. Markus Bredel and P.J. Lukac commented on the genetic makeup of brain tumors. Science News September 3 New bond in the basement Research by Dr. James Kramer is featured. New England Journal of Medicine September 3 Should Coronary Calcium Screening Be Used in Cardiovascular Prevention Strategies? Dr. Robert Bonow’s article was featured. Chicago Tribune September 6 End‐of‐life care conversations can be complicated, but comforting Dr. Linda Emanuel commented on end‐of‐life conversations and shared her research on the subject. UPI September 9 Mentally ill not asked to quit smoking Dr. Brian Hitsman’s research was featured. New York Times September 14 Exercise can extend survival even in 'oldest old' Dr. James Webster commented on research which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Washington Post September 15 Six ways to give your heart a hand Dr. Robert Bonow commented on causes that contribute to heart disease. Medical News Today September 18 Top Research Advances Highlight New Approaches To Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Dr. Mary McDermott received the Best PAD Research Award in Vascular Medicine. National Public Radio September 23 MSN.com September 24 US News & World Report September 24 Careful With Tamiflu Dosing In Kids Dr. Michael Wolf commented on the difficulties of properly measuring children’s Tamiflu doses.

For more headlines, visit: www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/news/

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We also provide mouse embryonic fibroblasts (passage 0), which can be used in hESC unrelated experiments by those who don’t want to deal with animals

FSM Researcher October 2009

Page 9

Sponsored Awards

Daniel C. Lee, MD Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Radiology Project Title: Defibrillators to Reduce Risk by Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation (DETERMINE): MRI Core Laboratory Sponsor: St. Jude Medical, Inc.

Our lab serves as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) core laboratory for the DETERMINE trial — a multicenter, randomized study which will test the hypothesis that implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy in combination with medical therapy improves long term survival over medical therapy alone in patients with mild to moderate impairment in heart‐pumping function (ejection fraction greater than 35 per‐cent) and heart muscle damage (myocardial infarction) greater than 10 percent of the left heart muscle mass as measured by CMR. At least 10,000 patients will undergo CMR at up to 100 field sites within the United States and will be enrolled in the DETERMINE registry, of which 1,550 patients will be randomized. We are excited to play an important role in this trial. The randomized phase of the trial will test the utility of CMR as a risk stratification tool for sudden cardiac death. The registry with clinical data and images from more than 10,000 patient studies will facilitate investigation into novel CMR indices and relationships between CMR measurements and clinical variables.

ARRA Grants The following Feinberg investigators have been awarded funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. To read more about each grant, please click here or click on the an investigator’s name (when available).

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Hossein Ardehali Cardiology Role of the Mitochondrial Atp‐Binding Cassette Pro‐tein‐1 in Cellular Protec‐tion

Rishi K. Arora Cardiology Disruption of Autonomic Pathways in the Left Atrium by Inhibition of G‐Proteins

James R. Bartles Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

The Roles of Espins in Hair Cell Stereocilia

Charles Bennett Hematology and Oncology

Chicago Cancer Naviga‐tion Project

Charles Bennett Hematology and Oncology

Research for Adverse Drug‐Events and Reports

Lester Irvin Binder Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

Tau Nitration and Oxida‐tion in Alzheimer's Dis‐ease

Melissa Ann Brown Microbiology‐Immunology

Mechanisms of Mast Cell Influence on EAE Disease Course

Barbara M. Buttin Obstetrics and Gynecology

The Role of SNCG in the Carcinogenesis of Uterine Papillary Serous

Mercedes Car‐nethon

Preventive Medicine

Epidemiologic Studies of Type 2 Diabetes in Nor‐mal Weight Adults

Mercedes Car‐nethon

Preventive Medicine

Autonomic, Endothelial, and Inflammatory Corre‐lates of Sleep Duration

David Cella Medical Social Sciences

PROMIS Statistical Center

Dane Chetkovich Neurology HCN Channel Trafficking in Epilepsy

Nicholas Cianciotto Microbiology‐Immunology

Virulence Factors of Stenotrophomonas Mal‐tophilia

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Anis Contractor Physiology Kainate Receptor Signaling at Excitatory Synapses

John Crispino Hematology and Oncology

Identification of Altered Mo‐lecular Signature of Down Syndrome IPS Cells

John Crispino Hematology and Oncology

Role of Survivin in Develop‐ment of Megakaryocytes and Erythroid Cells

Syamal Kumar Datta Rheumatology Genetic, Viral and Immu‐nologic Studies in New Eng‐land Mice

Steven DeVries Ophthalmol‐ogy

Function of Basal Synapses at Mammalian Photoreceptors

FSM Researcher October 2009

Sponsored Awards, Continued

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Rohan Dharmaku‐mar

Radiology D SSFP MRI for Detecting Functionally Important Coronary Artery Stenosis at Rest

Andrea Dorfleutner Rheumatology Molecular Mechanisms of Cytoskeletal Rearrange‐ment in Rheumatoid Arthri‐tis

Andrea Dunaif Endocrinology Genome‐Wide Association Scan of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Phenotypes

Andrew Evens Hematology‐Oncology

Impact of Lifestyle with Tumor Pathways and Mi‐croenvironment on Lym‐phoma

Adriana Ferreria Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

Novel Tau‐Mediated Neu‐rodegeneration Mecha‐nisms

Brett Geissler Microbiology‐Immunology

Functional Characterization of Rho Inactivation by Vibro Cholerae RTX Toxin

Richard Gershon Medical Social Sciences

Genorm: Collection of Genotypic Data for the NIH Toolbox Norming Sample

Robert Goldman Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

Intermediate Filament Cell Surface Interactions

Cara Gottardi Medicine: Pulmonary

Mechanism of β‐Catenin Targeting to Adhesive or Transcriptional Complexes

Jay A. Gottfried Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center

Perceptual Coding and Modulation of Odor Objects in the Human Brain

Kathleen J. Green Pathology Function of Desmoglein 1/Pemphigus Foliaceus Anti‐gen

Richard Green Hepatology Molecular and Genetic Analysis of Murine Steato‐hepatitis

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Philip Greenland Preventive Medicine and NUCATS Di‐rector

Multidisciplinary Clinical and Translational Sci‐ence (MCTS) Program (UL1)

Adrian Gross Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

Structural Studies on Prokaryotic Potassium Channels

Alan R. Hauser Microbiology‐Immunology

ExoU and the Patho‐genesis of Pseudomonas Pneumonia

Xiaolin He Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

Structural Biology of Oncogenic Receptor Tyrosine Kinases

Charles Heckman Physiology Effects on Monamines on Motoneuron Dis‐charge Patterns

Lifang Hou Preventative Medicine

DNA Methylation Altera‐tions in Response to Pesticides Exposure

Chi‐Ju C. Huang Physiology Neural Mechanisms of 3‐D Linear Vestibulo‐ocular Reflex

Alan Kadish Medicine Lightweight, Blame‐aware Contract Check‐ing

William John Karpus Pathology The Role of Chemokines in Autoimmune Enceph‐alomyelitis

Joseph Kang Preventive Medicine

New Methods for Esti‐mating Effects of Par‐enting on Child Eating and Overweight

Warren Kibbe NU Clinical and Transla‐tional Sci‐ences Insti‐tute

Disease Ontology: An Open Biomedical Ontol‐ogy for Disease

J. Julie Kim Obstetrics and Gynecology

Mechanisms of Proges‐terone Receptor Action in Endometriosis

David Klumpp Urology Interactive Mechanisms of Pelvic Pain

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FSM Researcher October 2009

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Sponsored Awards, Continued

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Toshio Narahashi Molecu‐lar Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

Mechanism of Alcohol and Nicotine Interaction

Nalini Marie Rajaman‐nan

Cardiology Role of Lrp5/Beta‐Catenin in Aortic Valve Calcification

Eva Redei Psychiatry and behavioral Sciences

Prenatal Alcohol: Hor‐mone‐Regulated Genes and Behavior

Sergei Revskoy Hepatology Developmental Aspects of Sexual Dimorphism of Hepatic Tumors: Zebrafish Model

Sarah Rice Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

The Mechanism of Kinesin Self‐Regulation

Karen Ridge Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care

Effects of Hypoxia on Alveolar Epithelial Cy‐toskeleton

Steven Rosen Medicine Chicago Cancer Naviga‐tion Project

Steven Rosen Medicine The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center

Vijay Sarthy Ophthalmol‐ogy

Muller Cell Role in Reti‐nal Diseases

Robert P. Schleimer Medicine: Allergy

Epithelial BAFF and APRIL in Airway Inflam‐mation, Immunity and Disease

William H. Schnaper Pediatrics Adaptor Molecules in TGF‐Beta Signaling

Teepu Siddique Neurology Environment‐Sensitive Genes in Motoneuron Degeneration

Gordon Shepherd Physiology Flexible, Open Source Software for Laser Scan‐ning Microscopy

Greg A. Smith Microbioogy‐Immunology

Alpha‐Herpes virus As‐sembly, Egress and Viral Particle Heterogeneity

Maureen Smith Genetic Medi‐cine

Impact of Data Access Policies on Biobank Par‐ticipation

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Peter Andreas Kopp Endocrinology X‐Linked Recessive Familial Neuro‐Hypophyseal Diabetes Insipidus

Douglas A. Kuperman Allergy Arachidonic Acid Medi‐ated Regulation of Sec‐retory Iga Levels in the Airways

Laimonis A. Laimins Microbiology‐Immunology

Life Cycle of Human Papillomaviruses

Robert M. Lavker Dermatology Corneal Epithelial Stem Cells

Li Liming Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

Elucidating the Rela‐tionships of Heat Shock Factors, Molecular Chaperones and Prions

Douglas Losordo Medicine Therapeutic Angio‐genesis in Vascular Medicine III

William Lowe Medicine GWA Mapping: Mater‐nal Metabolism‐Birth Weight Interactions

Zhidong (Nick) Lu Allergy Glucocorticoid Recep‐tor Translational Iso‐forms in Asthma

Marek‐Marsel M. Me‐sulam

Cognitive Neu‐rology and Alzheimer's Disease

Language in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Richard McGee Medical Edu‐cation and Faculty Devel‐opment

Career Decision‐Making of Future Mi‐nority Biomedical Sci‐ence Faculty

Richard McGee Medical Edu‐cation and Faculty Devel‐opment

Mentoring for Success: Developing Fundamen‐tal Skills for Biomedical Research

June M. McKoy Medicine: Geriatrics

Adverse Drug Reac‐tions In Geriatric Can‐cer Patients

Marek‐Marsel Mesu‐lam

CNADC Language in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Richard Miller Molecu‐lar Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

Chemokine Receptor Function in the Nerv‐ous System

FSM Researcher October 2009

Page 12

Sponsored Awards, Continued

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Bonnie Spring Preventive Medicine

Engaged: E‐Networks Guiding Adherence to Goals for Exercise and Diet

Christian Stehlik Rheumatology Maturation of IL‐1beta and IL‐18 in novel macrophage aggre‐somes

Christian Stehlik Rheumatology Pyrin Proteins as Regula‐tors of Innate Immune Pathways

David Patrick Sullivan Pathology Isolation of the LBRC and Characterization of Its Protein Components

Dalton James Surmeier Physiology Rhythmicity and Syn‐chrony in the Basal Gan‐glia

Geoffrey Swanson Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry

The role of Kainate re‐ceptors in oligodendro‐cyte toxicity and auto‐immune encephalomye‐litis (EAE)

Jacob Sznajder Medicine: Pulmonary

Recruitment of New Faculty to Enhance Re‐search in Lung Biology

Jacob Sznajder Medicine: Pulmonary

Pathophysiology of Al‐veolar Epithelial Lung Injury

Jacob Sznajder Medicine: Pulmonary

The Injurious Effects of Hypercapnia on the Al‐veolar Epithelium

Name Dept./Div. Project Title

Jian‐Jun Wei Pathology Racial Disparity for miRNAs in Uterine Leio‐myomas

Linda J. Van Eldik Cell and Mo‐lecular Biology

Drug Discovery Training In Age‐Related Disorders

John Varga Medicine Fibroblast TGF‐Beta/Signaling in Scleroderma: Modula‐tion by PPAR‐Gamma

Susan Winandy Microbiology‐Immunology

The role of Ikaros in regulation of Notch tar‐get gene expression

Guang‐Yu Yang Pathology Soluble Epoxide Hy‐drolase as a Novel Tar‐get of Colitis‐Induced

Teresa Woodruff Obstetrics and Gynecology

Center for Reproductive Research at Northwest‐ern University

Jindan Yu Hematology‐Oncology

The Role of beta‐adrenergic Signaling in Prostate Cancer

Phyllis Zee Neurology Sleep and Cardiovascu‐lar Health

Li‐Qun Zhang Physical Medi‐cine and Re‐habilitation

ACL Injury Mechanisms & Off‐axis Neuromuscu‐lar Diagnosis & Training

Funding Opportunities Beta Cell Biology Consortium (U01) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa‐files/RFA‐DK‐09‐011.html Submission deadline: November 24 Amount: This FOA will utilize the U01 grant mechanism. The total project period for an application submitted in response to this fund‐ing opportunity may not exceed five years. Expected direct cost amount for individual awards is $400,000 to $1.5 million. Cost sharing is not required. Synopsis: The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases invite new U01 applications to participate in a consor‐tium of investigators, the Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC): www.betacell.org. The BCBC will work collaboratively to facilitate re‐search in the following areas: (1) use cues from pancreatic development to directly differentiate pancreatic beta cells and islets from stem/progenitor cells for use in cell‐replacement therapies for diabetes; (2) determine how to stimulate beta cell regeneration in the adult pancreas as a basis for improving beta cell mass in diabetic patients; (3) determine how to reprogram progenitor/adult cells into pancreatic beta‐cells both in‐vitro and in‐vivo as a mean for developing cell‐replacement therapies for diabetes; and (4) investigate the progression of human type‐1 diabetes using patient‐derived cells and tissues transplanted in humanized mouse models. The BCBC will be responsible for collaboratively generating the necessary reagents, mouse strains, antibodies, assays, protocols, technologies and vali‐dation assays that are beyond the scope of any single research effort proposed by the investigators.

FSM Researcher October 2009

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Look for weekly funding opportunities and events announcements in your e‐mail

Funding Opportunities, Continued The Human Connectome Project (U54) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa‐files/RFA‐MH‐10‐020.html Submission deadline: November 23 Amount: This FOA will utilize the NIH Specialized Center Cooperative Agreement (U54) award mechanism. An applicant may request a project period of up to five years and a budget in total costs of up to $6 million per year. Cost sharing is not required. Synopsis: This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is issued as an initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. The Neuroscience Blueprint is a collaborative framework through which 16 NIH institutes, centers, and offices jointly support neuroscience‐related research, with the aim of accelerating discoveries and reducing the burden of nervous system disorders (for further information, see http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/). The overall purpose of this five year Human Connectome Project (HCP) is to develop and share knowledge about the structural and functional connectivity of the human brain. This purpose will be pursued through the following specific efforts: Existing, but cutting‐edge, non‐invasive imaging technologies will be optimized and combined to acquire structural and functional in vivo data about axonal projections and neural connections from brains of hundreds of healthy adults. Demographic data and data regarding sensory, motor, cognitive, emotional, and social function will also be collected for each subject, as will DNA samples and blood (to establish cell lines). Models to better understand and use these data will be developed. Connectivity patterns will be linked to existing architectonic data. Data and models will be made available to the research community immediately via a user‐friendly system to include tools to query, organize, visualize and analyze data. Outreach activities will be conducted to engage and educate the research community about the imaging tools, data, models, and informatics tools. After five years, these specific efforts are expected to deliver: (1) A set of integrated, non‐invasive imaging tools to obtain connectivity data from humans in vivo; (2) A high quality and well characterized, quantitative set of human connectivity data linked to behavioral and genetic data as well as to general, existing architectonic data, and associated models, from up to hundreds of healthy adult female and male subjects; and (3) Rapid, user‐friendly dissemination of connectivity data, models, and tools to the research community via outreach activities and an informatics platform.

To view more funding opportunities, visit: www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/research/funding­opportunities/

Featured Upcoming Events International Institute for Nanotechnology Symposium

The International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) is a collaborative venture between Northwestern University and the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory, which unites over $445 million in nanotechnology research, educational programs, and infrastructure under one umbrella. Each year the IIN organizes and sponsors a symposium that brings together leading national and international researchers. The symposium provides a venue to enhance interactions and encourage collaborations. Date: Thursday, October 29 Time: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Location: Hotel Orrington 1710 Orrington Ave. (Evanston) Contact: Denise Dooley (847) 467‐4862 **Note: Conference is free to the public, but registration is required. Learn more and register here: http://www.iinano.org/symposium/2009/index.htm

From Reading to Writing Life Code: A Conversation with Juan Enriquez (Chicago Event)

Just as the digital revolution upended industries and changed which countries were rich or poor, the life sciences revolution will create waves across food, feed, textiles, pharma, biotech, energy, IT, and other fields. A powerful driver of this trend is our growing ability not just to read genomes– an organism’s complete set of genetic information– but to write out stretches of this “life code” and use it to reprogram cells to perform new and valuable functions. Join us as Juan Enriquez, managing director of Excel Venture Management and accomplished writer, businessman, and academic, explores what is possible using this new technology, and how it stands to revolutionize our lives. Date: Thursday, November 5 Time: 7 to 8:30 p.m. Location: Hughes Auditorium, Lurie Medical Research Center 303 E. Superior St. (Chicago) Contact: Elizabeth Jean Herbert (312) 503‐2072 Event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Learn more here: http://www.cgm.northwestern.edu/cgm/Public‐Education/Silverstein‐Lecture‐Series

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For more events, visit www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/research/calendar/

Event organizers are encouraged to submit

calendar items on Plan‐it Purple.

We want to hear from you!

Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

Feinberg School of Medicine Office for Research

E‐mail: kristin‐jacobsen@northwestern.edu or

n‐mladic@northwestern.edu

Phone: 312‐503‐3129 Fax: 312‐503‐2790

www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/research/

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