Cross-species comparisons of cancer signaling. Nat Genet. 2005 37:7-8 (Graeber & Sawyers)

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:32:07 -0800

Modeling of human cancer in genetically engineered mice and genome-wide measurements of mRNA expression have now been combined to accelerate the search for new molecularly targeted therapies against cancer. Looking forward, we propose a community-wide systematic effort to model and characterize an array of different cancer-related aberrant signaling pathways in several mouse models of cancer.

Prostate-specific deletion of the murine Pten tumor suppressor gene leads to metastatic prostate cancer Cancer Cell 4 209-221

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:26:13 -0800

Prostate-specific deletion of the murine Pten tumor suppressor gene leads to metastatic prostate cancer.

Wang S, Gao J, Lei Q, Rozengurt N, Pritchard C, Jiao J, Thomas GV, Li G, Roy-Burman P, Nelson PS, Liu X, Wu H.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The murine Pten prostate cancer model described in this study recapitulates the disease progression seen in humans: initiation of prostate cancer with prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), followed by progression to invasive adenocarcinoma, and subsequent metastasis with defined kinetics. Furthermore, while Pten null prostate cancers regress after androgen ablation, they are capable of proliferating in the absence of androgen. Global assessment of molecular changes caused by homozygous Pten deletion identified key genes known to be relevant to human prostate cancer, including those "signature" genes associated with human cancer metastasis. This murine prostate cancer model provides a unique tool for both exploring the molecular mechanism underlying prostate cancer and for development of new targeted therapies.

Myc-driven murine prostate cancer...Cancer Cell 2003:(4) 223-238 (Sawyers)

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:19:30 -0800

Increased Myc gene copy number is observed in human prostate cancer. To define Myc's functional role, we generated transgenic mice expressing human c-Myc in the mouse prostate. All mice developed murine prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia followed by invasive adenocarcinoma. Microarray-based expression profiling identified a Myc prostate cancer expression signature, which included the putative human tumor suppressor NXK3.1. Human prostate tumor databases revealed modules of human genes that varied in concert with the Myc prostate cancer signature. This module includes the Pim-1 kinase, a gene known to cooperate with Myc in tumorigenesis, and defines a subset of human, "Myc-like" human cancers.

Micro lab makes cheap PET scan ingredient

Thu, 5 Jan 2006 13:06:16 -0800

Microlab makes cheap PET scan ingredients. A miniature chemistry set the size of a penny looks to deliver faster, cheaper imaging agents for positron emission tomography (PET) scans, which are used to see inside patient's bodies. By Mark Peplow, December 16 2005, Nature Online.

Nanobiotech News Press Release

Wed, 4 Jan 2006 12:40:50 -0800

Special report details rapid growth of nanomedicines and diagnostics pipeline.

Systems Biology an New Technologies Enable Predictive and Preventative Medicine

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:55:01 -0800

A simple and elegant explanation of systems biology.

New Microchip Technology for Medical Imaging Biomarkers of Disease Developed

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:41:52 -0800

A collaboration among scientists at UCLA, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford, Siemens and Fluidigm has developed a new technology using integrated microfluidic chips for simplifying, lowering the cost and diversifying the types of molecules used to image the biology of disease with the medical imaging technology, positron emission tomography (PET).