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- Posted Thursday July 30, 2009
TGen-led team is one of seven selected for $1 million skin-cancer grants from the Melanoma Research Alliance
Awards support teams pursuing novel, outcomes-driven
research
PHOENIX, Ariz. - July 30, 2009 - An international scientific team
led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today
received a $1 million grant to study skin cancer from the Melanoma
Research Alliance.
The grant was made to a team led by Dr. Jeffrey Trent, TGen's
President and Research Director, who is the Team Lead among the
Principal Investigators in the two-year study: Identification of
Novel Melanoma Risk Genes Using High-throughput Genomics.
"The world-wide team of investigators on this project has worked
together for a decade to identify individuals and families who are
at increased risk for this deadly disease. While the team includes
investigators from Europe and Australia, the research is
particularly important to Arizonans who are disproportionately
affected,'' Dr. Trent said.
Dr. Kevin Brown, an Associate Investigator in TGen's Integrated
Cancer Genomics Division, also described the TGen-led team as part
of an ongoing collaboration with the International Melanoma
Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL), which has identified families
worldwide that are predisposed to getting skin cancer.
"There are situations in which there is a strong family history of
melanoma. If you can identify the genes, or mutations, that put
people at risk for melanoma, you can implement targeted screening
or prevention efforts,'' said Dr. Brown.
"Identifying the genes that mediate development of melanoma will
give you an understanding of the basic biology, and conceivably
could give you some clues into ways that you could do chemo
prevention, or other things, for people who are at strong risk of
getting melanoma,'' Dr. Brown said.
The other Principal Investigators in the TGen-led research are:
Dr. Nicolas Hayward of the Queensland (Australia) Institute of
Medical Research; Dr. Goran Jonsson of Lund (Sweden) University;
and Dr. Graham Mann of the University of Sydney (Australia).
Arizona's non-Hispanic Caucasian population has among the nation's
highest incidence rate of skin cancer. Australia has the highest
incidence rate of the disease in the world.
The TGen-led team was one of seven multidisciplinary groups who
today received a total of $6.9 million in awards from the
Washington, D.C.-based Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) to pursue
novel, outcomes-driven melanoma research.
These awards are part of the MRA's second round of grants focused
on research that addresses gaps in translational science. In its
second year of grant-making, MRA is now supporting 37 of the most
promising melanoma research programs worldwide, totaling more than
$16 million (including today's $6.9 million) in an effort to
accelerate progress toward a cure.
"We are energized by the quality of proposals we continue to
receive from the melanoma research community. In this latest round
of grants, we are pleased to support seven multidisciplinary
approaches that hold great potential to advance melanoma
treatments," said Dr. Suzanne Topalian, M.D., Chair of the MRA
Grant Review Committee and Director of the Johns Hopkins Melanoma
Program.
According to the grant description presented by Dr. Trent:
"Early detection of cutaneous malignant melanoma offers the best
form of cure. Characterization of the genes influencing melanoma
risk is critical towards efforts aimed at disease prevention and
early detection.
"Studies of families with multiple melanoma patients have
identified mutations in two genes that strongly predispose to the
disease, but these mutations are found only in a minority of
families.
"To identify additional genes, the International Melanoma Genetics
Consortium (GenoMEL) recently completed the largest genetic study
of melanoma families to date, comprising 174 families with three or
more melanoma patients. This study identified two chromosome
positions likely to harbor melanoma susceptibility genes, while a
separate smaller study by a GenoMEL member group has identified a
third.
"We propose here to extend this collaborative effort by screening
all genes at these three chromosomal locations for
disease-predisposing mutations in melanoma families. We will also
work towards identifying additional susceptibility genes by
sequencing the entire genomes of patients from five of the largest
melanoma families.
"The identification of novel predisposition genes is a major first
step towards accurately estimating individualized disease risk and
ultimately implementing disease prevention and early-detection
strategies for at-risk individuals. Further, characterization of
the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma susceptibility may
lead to a better understanding of the processes underlying melanoma
development and progression, and ultimately to novel strategies for
melanoma treatment."
*
The other teams receiving the latest round of MRA grants
are:
Developing Melanoma Screening in Primary Care
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Martin A. Weinstock, M.D., Ph.D., Rhode Island Hospital
and Brown University
Maryam Asgari, M.D., M.P.H., Kaiser Foundation Research
Institute
Melody Eide, M.D., M.P.H., Henry Ford Health System
Suzanne Fletcher, M.D., M.Sc., Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and
Harvard Medical School
Alan Geller, R.N., M.P.H., Harvard School of Public Health
Allan Halpern, M.D., M.S., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center
Manipulating Immune Regulation in Adoptive T-cell Therapy for
Melanoma
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Jeffrey Weber, M.D., Ph.D., H. Lee Moffitt Cancer
Center and Research Institute
Patrick Hwu, M.D., M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Identification and Validation of Combination Therapies for
Melanomas
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Michael J. Weber, Ph.D., University of Virginia
Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dan Gioeli, Ph.D., University of Virginia
Proposal Title: Sequencing of the Melanoma Exome, Transcriptome
and Epigenome Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Ruth Halaban, Ph.D., Yale University
Marcus Bosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University
Michael Krauthammer, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University
David Stern, Ph.D., Yale University
Combinatorial Immunotherapy for Melanoma with B7-H1/PD-1
Checkpoint Blockade
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Drew Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
University
Lieping Chen, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Suzanne Topalian, M.D., Johns Hopkins University
Identification of Novel Melanoma Risk Genes Using High-throughput
Genomics
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., Translational Genomics Research
Institute
Nicolas Hayward, Ph.D., Queensland Institute of Medical
Research
Goran Jonsson, Ph.D., Lund University
Graham Mann, Ph.D., The University of Sydney
Defining the Importance of Immunity to NY-ESO-1 in Melanoma
(Co-funded by the Cancer Research Institute)
Principal Investigators:
Team Lead: Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center James P. Allison, Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center
Jonathan Cebon, Ph.D., Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Alexander Eggermont, M.D., Ph.D., Daniel den Hoed Cancer
Center
Sacha Gnjatic, Ph.D., Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Dirk Jäger, M.D., University Hospital Heidelberg
Elke Jäger, Ph.D., Goethe University Frankfurt
Alexander Knuth, M.D., University of Zurich
Lloyd J. Old, M.D., Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
*
About the Melanoma Research Alliance:
The Melanoma Research Alliance is a public charity formed under
the auspices of the Milken Institute, with the initial generous
founding support of Debra and Leon Black. It supports an
international, cross-disciplinary group of biomedical researchers
possessing clinical and scientific expertise to explore, identify,
and pursue innovative solutions to critical research issues leading
to better treatments and a cure for patients with melanoma. For
more information, please visit:
www.melanomaresearchalliance.org.
Press Contact:
Cecilia Arradaza
Communications Director
202-336-8912
[email protected]
*
About the International Melanoma Genetics Consortium
This non-profit Consortium was set up in 1997 and is comprised of
the majority of research groups worldwide, working on the genetics
of familial melanoma. It was formed to allow better sharing of
information and pooling of data. In this way the Consortium will
make progress in a way that no single group could ever do on its
own. For more information, please visit: www.genomel.org.
*
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix,
Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting
groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at
TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer,
neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of
translational research where investigators are able to unravel the
genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with
collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen
believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency
and effectiveness of the translational process. TGen is affiliated
with the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
For more information, visit: www.tgen.org.
Press Contact:
Steve Yozwiak
TGen Senior Science Writer
602-343-8704
[email protected]
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