Notes from the Lab
February 29, 2012
Natalya's Poster at OHSU Rare Disease Day 2012
Natalya joined us last fall and has been working hard with Ashley on the Fanconi Anmeia-Fetal Hematopoiesis project. Tasked with carrying on protein array work, but also setting up PCR studies on fetal liver expression of key hematopoiesis regulators, she made several important observations. We were all excited to help her prepare a poster including her data and the first ever OHSU Rare Disease Research Day was a great venue to present those findings. Designed as session opener, the poster session was well attended and Natalya stood her ground to inquisitive questions. She will continue her work in developing an immunohistochemistry protocol for this project and has taken a lead in expanding our mouse colony. Many more presentations to come– and not just on leap day !
Check out program links and highlights of Rare Disease Research Day here: http://ozone.ohsu.edu/blogs/somresearchvoice/2012/03/05/standing-room-only-at-the-rdrc-conference/
February 12, 2012
What to do on a rainy Sunday morning in Portland in February ?
The 8th Annual Valentine Day Run is a pretty good place to start. Twelve hundred believers in FA research showed up and $46,000 were raised. OHSU had a strong presence and it was fun to see friends and community come together to support the cause.
Ashley’s third year (I think) and eight for me. We will have to work on growing the team and upgrade on our gear. Not much a fan of bee costumes (I counted three runners in those), maybe it’s time to get personalized hoodies, like Maureen.
December 6, 2011
Still unpacking boxes from his move to Portland, Santhosh C. Verghese joined us this week. He brings experience and critical expertise in retrovirology and vector design to the lab. Santhosh and his wife and son relocated from the Washington DC area, where he most recently worked at the NIH. Santosh has already been counseled not to take the current Portland sunshine for granted. Word on the street is, Santhosh has plans to rediscover his bike legs. WELCOME !!
October 10, 2011
Exciting news this last week as Ashley, Noah and Michael had their abstract submissions accepted for presentation at the December Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. Along with co-authors, they worked hard over the summer months to complete (...and repeat, and repeat...) their experiments.
- Ashley N. Kamimae-Lanning, Tae Hoon Ha, Amy M. Skinner, Thomas B. Russell, Peter Kurre Developmental defects in hematopoiesis in a mouse model of Fanconi Anemia.
- Noah Hornick, Jianya Huan, Jeffrey W. Tyner and Peter Kurre. Flt3 Kinase Regulates Microvesicle Transfer of miRNA Between AML and Stromal Cell.
- Michael Layoun, Amy M. Skinner, Jianya Huan, Peter Kurre. Exosome trafficking of BCR-ABL oncoprotein promotes the IL-3 independent proliferation of bystander cells.
All three will be busy preparing their presentations of the next few weeks and we are looking forward to attending the meeting in San Diego. http://www.hematology.org/meetings/annual-meeting/
Much deserved recognition and a sun break in the upcoming rain season!
July 25, 2011
With several people having recently joined, we decided to take some time away and have a lab retreat visiting Ape Cave and Lava Canyon on the slopes of Mount St. Helens. Rewarded by sunshine and just enough clouds to enhance Jianya's photos we took a guided tour of the Lavatubes. Amy turned out to be a skilled naturalist and promptly spotted the elusive gyrlloblattid (below) in the cave. (Proposed as the new lab mascot by Thomas). Noah brought no fewer than 6 lights only to find that most of them had exhausted batteries. Michael had hoped for some serious spelunking, but left the cave without any lost treasures.
After more than an hour in the cave at 42 F, we were ready for our picnic, greatly enhanced by Lauriel's Mojito's and A LOT of food. Finally a hike through the Lava Canyon and Ashley's cupcakes to complete the day! Lots of fun.
Joining us for the summer - and on this trip - were Lauriel, incoming PMCB student, Michael Layoun (MS1) and Tae Ha (MS2)
The Grylloblattid!!
June 8, 2011
We recently welcomed Jianya Huan PhD to the team. Jianya brings extensive experience in Molecular Biology and Protein Biochemistry to the group and will help us expand our research in microvesicle biology. He received his PhD from Oregon State University and was s a long -term member of the OHSU Neurology Department - Multiple Sclerosis Study Group. Jianya will provide us with valuable research expertise in immunology and serve as a great teacher to others.
May 12, 2011
¡ Hola Ashley !
Ashley just received word that she was named a 2011 Tartar Trust Fellow. The award will allow her to present her research project at the annual Fanconi Anemia (FA) Research Conference. A US-based conference in most years, except when the organizers decided to hold this year’s event in Barcelona, Spain.
Ashley has worked hard on her experiments understanding the developmental origins of bone marrow failure in the Fancc mouse model. Her work highlights a resurgent interest in the developmental hematopoiesis in the FA field as part of an effort to gain a more fundamental understanding of FA biology. Knowing more about the onset of hematopoietic failure and to what extent stem cell exhaustion is of pre-natal origin will have implications for diagnosis and perhaps treatment. It would also provide a much-needed perspective to complement research into induced pluripotent FA patient stem cells.
As for her Barcelona presentation..., it looks like she will have plenty of practice opportunity this week and next. She will be giving oral presentations at the student research forum and also at the Cell & Developmental Biology departmental seminars, respectively.
What a week. Well-deserved recognition of her dedicated work in the lab and the prospect of some exciting travel coming up this October.
April 13, 2011
LESS IS MORE!
Who would have thought what effort it takes to get rid of a little oxygen!
Oxygen partial pressures in most tissues are well below ambient conditions and those commonly used in tissue culture incubators. This has long been recognized as a limitation to cancer and hematopoiesis research. Hypoxia is also a key feature of the hematopoietic niche and plays a principal role in maintaining the stem cell pool. Hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment helps promote tumor vascularization and leukemogenesis is intricately linked to low oxygen in the bone marrow. Even Fanconi anemia progenitors show improved colony formation in low oxygen conditions.
Sounds like a great resource for our research program ? We certainly think that the ability to culture and (with some funding for a microscope…) seamlessly analyze cells under these conditions will substantially enhance our research program capability and provide new insight in stem cell and cancer biology.
The hypoxia chamber will be available to OHSU stem cell center and pediatric research faculty as a shared resource.
While we are finishing the final install and look forward to taking the chamber into operation, we want to thank Qianyue Wang and J-B Roullet, PhD, for their help getting this awesome piece of equipment up and running.
April 5, 2011
Welcome Kyle !
Kyle Lenz has joined the lab for a spring semester internship. Kyle is a native of Salem, Oregon and graduated as valedictorian of his class from West Salem High School. He subsequently enrolled at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where he is currently finishing his sophomore year.
Kyle has a long standing interest in science and is participating in the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Training Program at Dartmouth where he works in the lab of Dr. Jay Dunlap and Dr. Jennifer Loros. Over the past year he has conducted research on the effects of DNA damage on the mammalian cell and the role it plays in the circadian rhythm of an organism through a mouse embryonic fibroblast model. Kyle plans to continue this work in the Dunlap/Loros Lab over the course of the next year, before eventually writing a thesis. While here, Kyle will participate in work on understanding intrahematopoietic cell fusion. He will specifically work on developing high resolution melting temperature PCR protocols for SNP analysis in cell fusion products and will look for lineage ambiguity in cells from transplant recipients.
We are excited to have Kyle join the lab and look forward some exciting science !
March 17, 2011
Happy St. Patrick’s day!
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation has awarded a St. Baldrick’s Summer Fellowship Grant to the OHSU Department of Pediatrics Summer Internship Program!
For the past 4 years Amy Skinner, Ph.D. has directed this Internship program to foster science education at OHSU by matching undergraduate and highschool interns with Pediatric Faculty Mentors for a summer research experience. Under her guidance, the 10-week summer program promotes science through faculty seminars, workshops, journal clubs and peer group networking.
Always on the lookout for ways to further enhance the program, Amy initiated an institutional application to the St. Baldricks Foundation, championed by Department Chair H. Stacy Nicholson, M.D., MPH. Now Doernbecher will join a group of six elite Children’s Hospitals in the nation that currently receive the award Duke, Columbia, Rainbow & Babies in Cleveland, among them. The generous $5,000 fellowship grant will specifically support medical students working on pediatric oncology research the summer between the first and second year of medical school. This grant allows for a summer fellow stipend and expenses.
Training the next generation to make a difference!!
February 24, 2011
Congratulations Amy !
The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and U.S. Bank have awarded the 2011 US Bank Cancer Research Development Award to Amy Skinner.
The annual award recognizes promising young OHSU investigators and supports their important work in cancer research. In selecting Amy from a field of uniquely talented colleagues, the Award Committee recognized Amy’s talent, drive and commitment. Her project aims to understand the role of chromosomal changes in bone marrow cells and whether those changes are the earliest harbingers of cancer. The innovative work was conducted in close collaboration with the lab of W. H. Fleming and was presented in part at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Amy’s discussion of her important observations at the December 2010 Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) was subject of strong interest during the meeting and rewarded with an ASH Travel Award.
The US Bank Cancer Research Development Award was awarded during a luncheon with US Bank and OHSU Knight Cancer Institute leadership.
Pictured Left to Right: Malia Wasson, U.S. Bank President, Peter Kurre, MD, Amy Skinner, PhD, and Brian Druker, MD
February 13, 2011
Annual Valentine's Day Fanconi Anemia Run/Walk
For the seventh year running Peg Padden has hosted the Fanconi Anemia (FA) Valentine's Run at the Portland Waterfront. This great grass roots community event is held annually to benefit research into causes and treatment of Fanconi Anemia, a rare inherited illness that results in the loss of blood forming cells and an increased risk of developing cancer. Testament to Peg's talent in motivating people, the event has grown to attract over 1000 participants this year and will contribute nearly $47,000 to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund effort to help patients with this illness. As an added attraction the first -ever Adult FA patient meeting was held on the same weekend!
Joining FA patients, other researchers and friends, Ashley, Peter and their families helped spread the word. Ashley has actively researched the roots of bone marrow failure and stem cell loss in this disease as part of her PhD thesis project. She and Jared were repeat participants and completed the 12k walk. Peter and family took the 5k shortcut.
