Wenatchee Marathon donates proceeds to cancer research, specifically a lab studying angiogenesis. Dr. Sandra Ryeom, runner and lab researcher, gives us periodic updates so you can see how you money is being spent. Here are her updates and published articles:
2009 article in Nature: "Down’s syndrome suppression of tumour growth and
the role of the calcineurin inhibitor DSCR1" is here.
Department of Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the
Abramson Cancer Center
Sandra Ryeom, Ph.D.
Research Update: January 2010
Dear Ted and Ian,
With your ongoing support, we have continued to make progress on many research projects in the lab. This year my lab has moved to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where we have joined the Department of Cancer Biology. We are part of the Abramson Family Cancer Center, a multi-disciplinary center consisting of basic scientists and clinicians working together to translate discoveries from the lab into novel therapies for more effective cancer treatments.
One exciting area that we have made significant advances on this past year describes the use of a specific cell type and a specific protein that may predict whether a cancer has recurred well before current imaging methods can detect the presence of a re-growing tumor. Our work suggests that the levels of a specific protein called thrombospondin-1 that is involved in the process of angiogenesis or new blood vessel growth to nourish a growing tumor, may indicate the re-growth of a tumor. This protein is detected in platelets, small cells that circulate in the blood stream that are known to be important for wound healing, and clotting. In these studies, we use mouse models to explore the role of platelets in regulating cancer and as a “biomarker”- or an early indicator of cancer. In this work, we describe a mechanism by which platelets block the early stages of tumor growth and implicate the use of “designer platelets” as a possible therapeutic option down the road. We envision the possibility of one day manipulating platelets isolated from cancer patients on the lab bench to transform them into potent anti-tumor agents and then transfusing them back into patients with early stage cancer. This work is currently in press and is work that has been supported in part by you.
The lab and I are truly grateful for the support from you and all the runners and bikers that has allowed us to explore novel hypotheses that have led to the identification of new potentially “drug-able” targets for fighting cancer. We look forward keeping all of you updated with our progress in the lab.
Vascular Biology Program
Department of Surgery
Karp Building, 12.129
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617.919.2345, Fax: 617.730.0231
Email: sandra.ryeom@childrens.harvard.edu
Sandra Ryeom, Ph.D.
Research Update: April 2009
This has been an exciting year for my lab with significant progress made on a number of scientific projects. One of the major focuses for my group has been trying to understand why individuals with Down syndrome are protected from most cancers. We have known for a while that Down syndrome individuals have much lower rates of almost all cancers such as breast, lung, liver, stomach, brain, pancreas and colon. My lab has just recently published our work demonstrating one possible reason why this unique population may be protected from cancer. Individuals with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21 and thus have 3 rather than the normal 2 copies. We have identified 2 genes, called DSCR1 and DYRK1A, on chromosome 21 that when expressed at slightly higher levels than normal due to their third copy, prevents the ability of blood vessels to grow and nourish cancer cells or in other words, to block tumor angiogenesis. Using mouse models of Down syndrome, we are able to manipulate the copy number of our specific genes of interest and test our hypothesis examining tumor growth when these genes are either expressed in 3 copies or their normal 2 copies. The rapid progress on this work has been due, in part to the support of the Annie’s Fun Foundation from the Wenatchee and Leavenworth marathons and Vela Bella Women’s bike ride proceeds and is gratefully acknowledged in our publication.
This summer, my lab will be moving to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia, PA to the Department of Cancer Biology. This is an exciting opportunity for us to join an incredibly dynamic group of cancer biologists and clinicians at the Abramson Family Cancer Center at U. Penn Medical School. The collection of scientists and clinicians at the Cancer Center at Penn are pursuing complementary and novel approaches towards understanding how cancers are initiated and how they progress. The work of my lab investigating how blood vessels nourish tumors allowing them to grow will be a good fit with the other research groups at U. Penn.
In these tough economic times, we are even more grateful for the commitment and vision of Annie’s Fun to support the work of scientists such as myself. This support allows us to pursue novel approaches to understanding the growth and progression of cancer with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets for cancer treatment and the ultimate goal of making cancer a chronic manageable disease.
Vascular Biology Program
Department of Surgery
Karp Building, 12.129
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617.919.2345, Fax: 617.730.0231
Email: sandra.ryeom@childrens.harvard.edu
Ryeom Lab
Research Update: May 2008
As we continue our studies trying to understand how blood vessels grow to nourish cancer cells, funding support from Platypus Sports (via Wenatchee Marathon, Alefest Bike Ride, Vela Bella Bike Ride and Leavenworth Oktoberfest Marathon proceeds) will continue to play an important role in moving this work forward. This process of new blood vessel growth to support tumor growth is called angiogenesis and is a field that was founded by Dr. Judah Folkman, the Director of the Vascular Biology Program here at Children’s Hospital. Sadly, Dr. Folkman passed away very unexpectedly this past January 2008. He was an incredible mentor to my group, was full of energy and still had so much left to do. He was constantly and tirelessly working to bring new therapies discovered in the lab to patients for the fight against cancer. His loss has made us even more determined to honor his legacy by pushing forward our studies investigating the ways that we can stop these blood vessels from growing.
One of the projects that my group has made significant progress on this past year is the identification of a specific cell type and a specific protein that may be useful in predicting whether a cancer has recurred, well before this cancer can be detected by currently available radiologic imaging techniques. Our work suggests that the levels of a specific protein called thrombospondin-1 that is involved in the process of angiogenesis, may indicate the re-growth of a tumor. This protein is detected in platelets, small cells that circulate in the blood stream known to be important for wound healing, clotting and tumor growth. We continue to utilize mouse models of tumor growth and cancer to investigate the role of platelets in tumorigenesis and specifically how the protein thrombospondin-1 contributes to this process.
In these economically challenging times, obtaining funding from the federal government and specifically the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to be difficult. Your support of our research enables us to continue our focus on multiple projects in order to comprehensively study cancer growth and prevention from the specific angle of understanding the process of angiogenesis.
With gratitude for your support!
Sandra
Sandra Ryeom, Ph.D.
Vascular Biology
Children’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
300 Longwood Ave
Boston, MA 02115
sandra.ryeom@childrens.harvard.edu
Research Update: September 2007
My group has been focused on understanding how to stop angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels to support tumor growth. We have recently made progress on two major projects in the lab.
• We have been trying to understand how Down syndrome individuals are protected against cancer. Specifically we have been investigating which gene (or genes) on chromosome 21 may be involved in preventing cancer in this population. Recently, our work using mouse models of Down syndrome have identified one of the genes involved in preventing cancer in this population. This gene is referred to as the Down Syndrome Candidate Region-1 (DSCR1) gene and was initially identified due to its location on chromosome 21. It is now known to be involved in blocking angiogenesis and our initial studies show that DSCR1 may play a significant role in preventing cancer in the Down syndrome population. DSCR1 may function to block angiogenesis and ultimately prevent tumor growth. The goal of this work is to determine whether the DSCR1 gene product can be utilized as preventative anti-cancer therapy for the non-Down syndrome population.
• Another project in the lab has been focused on understanding how mutations in the hereditary breast cancer gene BRCA1, may initiate tumor growth. Women with a mutation in this gene have a 65% risk of developing breast cancer. Recent studies in our lab suggests that one of the previously unexplored functions of this gene may be to regulate proteins that block angiogenesis or prevent blood vessel growth to nourish tumor cells. We are investigating how BRCA1 regulates angiogenesis and this work may allow us to treat women with BRCA1 mutations with non-toxic anti-angiogenic therapies. These prophylactic therapies may suppress angiogenesis and thus prevent the growth of breast and ovarian tumors.
Your support of our work is very much appreciated!
