Meet a cancer researcher: Robert Wechsler-Reya

by on March 30, 2012 at 7:36 am | 0 Comments
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Dr. Wecshler-Reya and his family

Dr. Wecshler-Reya and his family

On June 5, 2012, California voters will have an opportunity to consider Proposition 29, also known as the California Cancer Research Act. Prop 29’s goal is to provide funding for cancer research by increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1. Sanford-Burnham’s Board of Trustees endorsed Prop 29 in September 2011. The University of California Regents has also voted to support it, along with the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, Stand Up To Cancer, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong).

We are presenting a series of blog posts to allow you to meet some of our cancer researchers and gain a better understanding of how the projected $735 million generated annually by the passing of Prop 29 would benefit cancer research in California.

Meet Robert Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D., director of the Tumor Development Program in Sanford-Burnham’s NCI-designated Cancer Center.

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Cancer drug discovery leaders come together at Sanford-Burnham

by on February 16, 2012 at 4:52 pm | 0 Comments
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Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Institute president and director of Sanford-Burnham's NCI-designated Cancer Center (center), with NCI-CBC leadership and participants

Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Institute president and director of Sanford-Burnham's NCI-designated Cancer Center (center), with NCI-CBC leadership and participants

Where do new medicines come from? The first step in the drug discovery process often involves screening small molecules (chemicals) to determine their potential to produce innovative biological research tools. Sanford-Burnham’s Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics uses robotic technology to sift through chemical compounds by the millions to find the few that could potentially be developed into new medicines

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New model of childhood brain cancer establishes first step to personalized treatment

by on February 13, 2012 at 9:01 am | 4 Comments
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Cerebellar stem cells engineered to express Myc and mutant p53 (shown here) give rise to aggressive tumors that resemble a particularly malignant form of human medulloblastoma, providing a new model that will help scientists develop more effective therapies for this disease.

Cerebellar stem cells engineered to express Myc and mutant p53 (shown here) give rise to aggressive tumors that resemble a particularly malignant form of human medulloblastoma, providing a new model that will help scientists develop more effective therapies for this disease.

Children with a devastating brain cancer called medulloblastoma develop tumors in a region of the brain called the cerebellum, which plays an important role in motor control. Seventy-five percent of children with the disease survive after aggressive surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy—but side effects can be severe, leading to cognitive deficits, endocrine disorders, and the development of other cancers later in life.

Sanford-Burnham scientists have now developed a new mouse model for studying medulloblastoma. The animal model mimics the deadliest of four subtypes of the human disease, a tumor that is triggered by elevated levels of a gene known as Myc. The study, published February 13 in the journal Cancer Cell, also suggests a potential strategy for inhibiting the growth of this tumor type. This achievement marks an important milestone toward personalized therapies tailored to a specific type of medulloblastoma.

“Being able to use an animal model as a tool to test treatments has been very valuable in medulloblastoma, as in other types of tumors. But for Myc-associated tumors, that hasn’t been an option because there hasn’t been a model of the disease. This is the first step to developing therapies for this type of tumor,” said Robert Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D., director of the Tumor Development Program in Sanford-Burnham’s National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, and senior author of the study.

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Stem cell “Collaboratory” opens in La Jolla

by on December 2, 2011 at 3:36 pm | 0 Comments
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Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya (left) and Dr. Evan Snyder at the grand opening of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Both of these stem cell researchers will soon relocate their labs to the new "collaboratory." (Photo credit: Mark Dastrup)

Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya (left) and Dr. Evan Snyder at the grand opening of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Both of these stem cell researchers will soon relocate their labs to the new "collaboratory." (Photo credit: Mark Dastrup)

“Patient advocates: this is our day!” Lorraine Stiehl shouted, rallying the crowed assembled on November 29 to witness the grand opening of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, a new 150,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility located in the Torrey Pines Mesa life science research cluster in La Jolla, a northern coastal area of San Diego, Calif.

Ms. Stiehl is a patient advocate coordinator for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the $3 billion stem cell agency created after California voters approved ballot measure Prop 71 in 2004. CIRM, and patient advocates like Ms. Stiehl, have played a huge role in bringing the Sanford Consortium to fruition. CIRM contributed $43 million to the project and patients are the reason that the consortium’s scientists are doing what they do—working to advance our understanding of stem cell biology and ultimately find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and many other conditions.

“You see 150,00 square feet of new research space,” Ms. Stiehl continued. “We see 150,000 square feet of hope, 150,000 square feet of empowerment.”

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The Atlantic Meets Sanford-Burnham

by on November 1, 2011 at 2:15 pm | 0 Comments
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The Atlantic Meets the Pacific lab experience

A group from The Atlantic Meets the Pacific conference tours the Stem Cell Research Center at Sanford-Burnham's San Diego campus. (Photo by Mark Dastrup)

When The Atlantic magazine was looking for a location to host its first West Coast symposium, the Torrey Pines Mesa area of San Diego sprang to their attention. As Atlantic Vice President Elizabeth Baker Keffer wrote in her welcome, “The research hub of San Diego makes this the perfect location to experience the interdisciplinary experiments occurring on the front line of discovery.” They partnered with UC San Diego to present The Atlantic Meets the Pacific, October 17-19.

Sanford-Burnham joined The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and UC San Diego’s Calit2 and Moores Cancer Center in representing the powerhouse of scientific ideas that resides here overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

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Coming soon: Medscape’s “Developments to Watch”

by on July 1, 2011 at 7:08 am | 0 Comments
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Dr. Evan Snyder (right) interviews his colleague, Dr. Steven Smith, on the Medscape set.

Dr. Evan Snyder interviews his colleague, Dr. Steven Smith, on the Medscape set.

Last week, Sanford-Burnham’s Fishman Auditorium, on the Institute’s La Jolla campus, was transformed into a temporary television studio. It was hardly recognizable under the bright lights and set dressing. Medical website Medscape recorded interviews with three Sanford-Burnham researchers for a new video series called “Developments to Watch.” The talk show-like discussions were hosted by Dr. Evan Snyder, who directs the Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology Program at Sanford-Burnham. Dr. Snyder is both a medical doctor who regularly sees patients and a scientist who conducts research in his own lab – the perfect person to help explain how discoveries made today might one day help patients.

Medscape is part of the network of sites run by WebMD. With this newest video series, Sanford-Burnham scientists will be providing expert commentary and information to help keep Medscape’s audience – primary care physicians, specialists and other health professionals – up-to-date on the latest medical research and what it means for their patients.

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In cancer, context is everything

by on May 9, 2011 at 6:00 am | 3 Comments
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Cerebellar stem cells normally generate neurons (green), astrocytes (blue) and oligodendrocytes (red), but can also give rise to brain tumors. (Image courtesy of the Wechsler-Reya lab)

Neurosphere

May is National Cancer Research Month, created by Congress in 2007 to recognize the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) for its contributions to the field. To honor AACR and highlight some of the important cancer research being done at Sanford-Burnham, we will be posting a series of articles on the ongoing work in our National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center. The vast majority of this research is made possible by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which includes the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Context can change everything. Driving 65 miles per hour on the highway is perfectly fine, but the same speed in a neighborhood could be deadly. The same is true in biology. Processes that are necessary in one context can be harmful in another.

Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya, who directs the Tumor Development Program in Sanford-Burnham’s Cancer Center, has spent many years studying how “good” processes can also cause disease. He is particularly interested in how mechanisms that are normal in embryonic development can cause cancer when turned on in children and adults.

“We work on the relationship between development and cancer, particularly in the brain,” says Dr. Wechsler-Reya. “We’re interested in how normal stem cells and progenitor cells make decisions like when to divide, when to differentiate and what to differentiate into. We’re interested in how those decisions go wrong in cancer.”

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Personalized Medicine 101

by on April 21, 2011 at 3:54 pm | 1 comment
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Dr. Steven Smith, Scientific Director for the Florida Hospital Sanford-Burnham Translational Research Institute, demonstrates sophisticated equipment used in metabolic studies.

Dr. Steven Smith, Scientific Director for the Florida Hospital Sanford-Burnham Translational Research Institute, cares for a patient.

In 2003, the completion of the human genome project gave us an unprecedented amount of genetic information. From this, a new clinical concept is emerging: personalized medicine.Conventional medical care generalizes treatment to all patients with a particular disease. But since a disease is as individual as the person who has it, casting a wide therapeutic net has its limitations. For one, patients with a certain genetic makeup might not respond to a particular drug as well as patients with different genetics, or they might experience different side effects. As personalized medicine becomes a reality, it could rectify these less-than-ideal situations.

From the diagnostic point-of-view, personalized medicine is a shift from reactive to proactive. Based on a person’s health, genetic, and environmental profiles, doctors practicing personalized medicine could assess a patient’s risk for acquiring a genetic disease before any symptoms develop. This might allow them to target the specific genes that account for illness (the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes that predispose a woman to breast cancer, for example), incorporate a prevention strategy, and monitor those genes over time. When it comes to treatment, personalized drugs could be prescribed based on an individual’s molecular “build” and targeting treatment where it will do the most good and the least harm.

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New insights into children’s health

by on November 22, 2010 at 10:54 am | 2 Comments
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San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital recently brought together an all-star cast of speakers for a symposiumon pediatric translational research – laboratory research that could be “translated” into therapies for sick children. This was the ideal place to bring laboratory scientists together with physicians. The close connection to patients was clear, as kids played in the hall outside the conference room, paramedics checked out the posters and doctors used the wall phones to return pager calls and provide consultations.What did they talk about? A little bit of everything that’s hot in pediatric research: brain cancer, leukemia, rare genetic diseases, stem cell therapies and re-wiring the immune response to fight disease.

One of Sanford-Burnham’s newest recruits, stem cell expert Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya, was there. Dr. Wechsler-Reya hasn’t finished his move to San Diego yet, but he did not want to miss the opportunity to connect with his colleagues in stem cell research and pediatric medicine.

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Institute Welcomes Robert Wechsler-Reya

by on August 5, 2010 at 8:57 am | 2 Comments
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Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya, a well-known researcher at Duke University has accepted a faculty position at Sanford-Burnham. He will be a professor and director of the Tumor Development Program at the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center. Dr. Wechsler-Reya is the first researcher to receive a Leadership Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The award, which will provide $5.9 million to support his research, was created to recruit stem cell scientists to California institutions.

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