Molecular Imaging Funded at Washington University
Jan 15, 03:34 AM
By Anonymous Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO) announced on November 8 that its innovative, multidisciplinary molecular imaging center had received a 5-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The grant will fund a second cycle of research at the Washington University Molecular Imaging Center, where scientists collaborate on advanced imaging projects. Initiatives at the center include an effort to help researchers track the spread of gene therapy for cancer and projects to monitor the contributions of key genes to tumor growth. "A number of research projects from the first grant have led to technology and approaches to imaging that we're now leveraging to answer major biological questions in this second grant," said the center's director, David Piwnica-Worms, MD, PhD, professor of radiology and of molecular biology and pharmacology. Piwnica-Worms is a coinvestigator on a Molecular Imaging Center project led by John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professor of Medicine. The team has developed a method for incorporating a "suicide gene" into transplanted cells to lessen complications from graftversus-host (GVH) disease. Whole-body PET is used to track the transplanted cells. "We know from mouse models that there are some different patterns of cell trafficking that seem to predict GVH," Piwnica-Worms said. "Obviously, we can't currently make human treatment decisions based on these kinds of patterns. But we'll be looking for potential correlations with an eye to maybe 1 day determining by PET that GVH is starting even before clinical symptoms become apparent." In another project, scientists led by Helen Piwnica-Worms, PhD, professor of ceil biology and physiology and of medicine, will probe cells' progression through the various stages of their life cycles. Piwnica-Worms and her colleagues are using molecular imaging to better understand how delays in the processes of replication are created, allowing cells to inspect their own DNA for damage that could lead to cancer. Raphael Kopan, PhD, professor of molecular biology and pharmacology and of medicine, leads another project that will examine how a protein called Notch contributes to cancer. Kopan's effort will harness 1 of the Molecular Imaging Center's core facilities, which make available technology, equipment, and expertise needed for research. This project will make use of a high- throughput screening core that allows rapid testing of compounds for desirable interactions with a target molecule. Kopan's group wants to identify potential pharmaceutical treatments for cancer. The center's other core facilities include a chemistry core that develops optical probes and imaging agents for new biological targets and a molecular imaging reporter core that contains tools for genetically altering cells and animals to enable tracking of molecules of interest. "It's an NCI-funded program, so our core focus is cancer, but the center's resources also support collaborative imaging efforts in a wide variety of fields, including immunology, neuroscience and cardiovascular disease," added David Piwnica-Worms. In addition to research activities, the center's new grant includes funding for support of postdoctoral and graduate students. Washington University School of Medicine Copyright Society of Nuclear Medicine Jan 2008 (c) 2008 Journal of Nuclear Medicine, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Molecular Imaging Funded at Washington University
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