Komen Race for the Cure: Jackson's Award Winning "Mice for the Cure" Team Scurries Toward Starting Line

Date: September 15, 2004

Bar Harbor, Maine - According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is responsible for 15 percent of cancer deaths in women in the United States. A 5K race, now in its eighth year, will be held along the Bangor waterfront on Sunday, Sept. 19, to raise money in support of the fight against breast cancer, and The Jackson Laboratory's Mice for the Cure team will once again be at the starting line.

Team Captain for the past five years, Debbie Krupke, a senior scientific curator at Jackson, has participated in the Annual Komen Maine Race for the Cure since its 1997 inception. "I participated in the first year of Maine's Race for the Cure because the mother of a friend of mine from high school had died from breast cancer, and because a good friend of mine from Jackson, who was also participating in the race, was fighting breast cancer at the time," said Ms. Krupke. "As someone who works in the area of cancer research and who has lost friends and family to cancer, it's personally important to me to participate."

Jackson Lab researchers are leading the way in discovering disease-related genes using mouse models. Founded in 1929 by Harvard-trained geneticist Clarence Cook Little, Jackson continues to pursue Little's vision, focusing on the mouse as a model to study the genetics of cancer and other human diseases and disorders. Just last year, Jackson Staff Scientist Tatyana Golovkina received the largest grant ever awarded in Maine by the American Cancer Society to continue her research studies of a novel mouse model that displays genetic resistance to mammary and other types of cancer. In total, Jackson maintains more than 70 different strains of mice that are used in breast cancer studies, enabling research here in Maine and at institutions around the globe.

The Mice for the Cure team has designed special T-shirts for the event for the past seven years with graphic design work provided free of charge by Union River Serigraphics in Ellsworth. They have won "Best T-Shirt" three times now--in 1999, 2002, and 2003--and "Most Creative Name" for Mice for the Cure when the name was first used in 2000. Jackson Customer Service Representative Maggie Hanscom designed the 2004 T-shirt. Part of Mice for the Cure since she started working at Jackson five years ago, Mrs. Hanscom said, "I believe being part of the team is a great way to show support for the basic research going on here at Jackson Lab, and a simple way to support a very important cause."

For more information on the Race for the Cure or the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Breast Cancer Foundation, please visit http://komenmaine.com.

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Note: An electronic image of this year's Mice for the Cure team T-shirt logo is available upon request.

With more than 1,300 employees and an FY05 operating budget of $130.1 million, the 75-year-old Jackson Laboratory is one of Maine's largest employers. Its research staff of more than 350 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and is also an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education-including programs for Maine high school, college, and graduate students.

Contact(s): Jade Harmer, 207-288-6051, jade@jax.org

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Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org