Kill the cancer, not the patient

For cancer patients on chemotherapy, the "cure"—toxic chemo drugs—can be as deadly as the disease itself. Jackson Laboratory Professor Gary Churchill, Ph.D., wants to change that with a radical new approach, supported by a new $1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, to test three chemotherapeutic drugs for toxic effects.

The pharmaceutical industry standard is to use a single mouse strain for testing. Churchill and The Jackson Laboratory are developing a new mouse population that is designed to maximize genetic diversity. Each "Diversity Outbred Mouse" will be genetically unique and, as a whole, the population will approximate the genetic diversity observed in human populations.

"So in terms of the information we're getting, it's almost like testing chemo drugs on every person on earth," Churchill says. "This sets the scene for future, highly reliable screens for cancer patients."

Elissa Chesler joins faculty

The Jackson Laboratory welcomed Assistant Professor Elissa Chesler, Ph.D., to its faculty in September 2009. Chesler previously led the systems genetics group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and served as an adjunct assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Neuroscience Institute.

Chesler works to improve how behavioral traits in mice are associated with complex underlying genetics and genomics. She then applies the data to human behavioral disorders. New tools to build larger genetic reference populations and analyze large data sets, such as the Collaborative Cross that provides genetically diverse but well-defined inbred mouse strains, are vital elements of her research.

"Traits that are easy to measure aren't necessarily the most useful," says Chesler. "I work to devise ways to ensure that mouse models are relevant to the human clinical state. We need to achieve greater precision in identifying how genetic, environmental and historical contributions shape behaviors."

Handel named AAAS Fellow

Mary Ann Handel, Ph.D., of The Jackson Laboratory, has received the distinction of AAAS Fellow, an honor bestowed by her peers. AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the world's largest scientific society and publishes the prestigious journal Science.

Handel was elected as an AAAS Fellow for "distinguished contributions to the understanding of mammalian gametogenesis and its genes, and service to reproductive biology research, including as Editor-in-Chief of Biology of Reproduction." She joins 531 fellow honorees in 2009 and is the only Mainer on the list.

"This is a most well-deserved honor," says Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Richard Woychik, Ph.D. "Mary Ann is not only a distinguished scientist in her field of reproductive genetics, but she is also a generous mentor and collaborator."

New partnership to battle ALS

Prize4Life is partnering with The Jackson Laboratory in the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease).

Harvard Business School student Avi Kremer, who was diagnosed with ALS, founded Prize4Life with fellow students in 2004 to accelerate research for treating and curing ALS by using large inducement prizes. The Jackson Laboratory will provide the most widely used ALS mouse models, and expert guidance for how to work with them, to researchers participating in one of Prize4Life's $1 million prize contests.

Teams competing for the Avi Kremer ALS Treatment Prize are pursuing several approaches, including therapies to replace damaged cells, protein-based therapeutics and small-molecule drugs that interfere with ALS-implicated pathways. The most sought-after ALS mouse models, popularly known as SOD1 mice, are distributed from dedicated supply colonies maintained by The Jackson Laboratory's JAX® Breeding Services.

Former summer student wins Nobel

An alumnus of The Jackson Laboratory's Summer Student Program is a winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D., today a professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, spent the summer of 1970 at The Jackson Laboratory. Szostak studied genes associated with thyroid function under the mentorship of Dr. Chen K. Chai.

Szostak shares last year's Nobel Prize with Drs. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase." Telomeres, structures on the ends of chromosomes, appear to have an important role in preventing damage to DNA during cell division and have been implicated in aging and cancer. For more information about telomeres, see page 26.

Szostak is the third alumnus of the Summer Student Program who has won a Nobel Prize. He shares that distinction with Laboratory Trustee David Baltimore, Ph.D., and Howard Temin, Ph.D., who shared the Nobel Prize in 1975.

Yun receives cancer research grant

Jackson Laboratory Assistant Professor Kyuson Yun, Ph.D., has been awarded a four-year, $720,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to pursue her research in fundamental mechanisms of cancer and cancer stem cells.

Yun studies both normal and cancer stem cells in the brain. She investigates the normal functions during brain development of genes that can either cause or repress cancer. She also analyzes the pathways that control brain cancer stem cells.

With her grant, Yun is investigating whether a protein expressed at high levels in aggressive forms of many cancers—such as those of the breast, colon and pancreas—may be specifically expressed in cancer stem cells in glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer. The study will provide a deeper understanding of the cancer stem cells and may provide insight into novel approaches to killing these cells.

Genetics and Your Health web area to launch

The Jackson Laboratory's website (www.jax.org) is expanding and enhancing its content for general audiences. A new web area, "Genetics and Your Health," is coming in February 2010, replacing the "Advances in Human Health" section.

The site will offer information about The Jackson Laboratory's efforts to discover the genetic causes of human diseases, through a variety of different perspectives and media. It will also include stories and videos featuring Laboratory personnel, patients and donors, with an emphasis on how the Laboratory's work is improving human health and contributing to personalized medicine tailored to each person's unique genetic makeup.

"We want this site to make a strong intellectual and emotional connection with people who are interested in how genetics and genomics are revolutionizing medicine and improving health," says Communications Director Barry Teater.

Remembering Alan Davis

Alan Davis of Walpole, Maine, one of The Jackson Laboratory's most dedicated and long-serving supporters, died on January 14, 2010, at the age of 80. Mr. Davis was a former board member and honorary trustee, and at the time of his death was chair of the Maine Chapter of The National Council, the Laboratory's volunteer organization.

Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Richard Woychik, Ph.D., says, "Alan had an intense interest in our mission and in helping us to get our message out, so that the world could better understand the Laboratory's impact on improving health and alleviating suffering."

Large new longevity initiative under way

The Jackson Laboratory has been at the center of recent discoveries about extending mammalian life span with rapamycin (see sidebar). Now, a large-scale initiative to unlock more secrets of human longevity and health is under way at The Jackson Laboratory—West.

RosScreening Inc., a subsidiary of Rostock Group, has enlisted the help of JAX—West to launch a screening project that will test whether any of some 1,000 different compounds extends the life span of mice by at least 30 percent. If all goes as hoped, this is just the initial phase of the project, and many thousands more compounds will be tested.