President Obama has announced that two Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center investigators have been awarded the nation’s highest honor for scientists at the beginning of their independent research careers. Basic scientist Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., and cancer-prevention researcher Ulrike “Riki” Peters, Ph.D., are among 100 researchers to receive the prestigious 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Each will be honored in a ceremony this fall at the White House.

Since 1996 the annual PECASE awards have honored the most promising young researchers in the United States whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for strengthening America’s leadership in science. The awards are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Nine federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the candidates. Selection for the award is based on two criteria: innovative research at the frontiers of sciences and technology that is relevant to the mission of the sponsoring organization or agency, and community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education or community outreach.

An evolutionary biologist, Malik is an associate member of the Hutchinson Center’s Basic Sciences Division and an affiliate assistant professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was nominated for the honor by the National Science Foundation, which supports his work. Earlier this year he also was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist.

Malik studies genetic conflict. He sees battles raging within a cell’s nucleus as genes jockey for evolutionary dominance. These clashes can have a long-term impact on organisms, as they sometimes alter the function of essential genes. Malik uses biochemistry and genomics to study the causes and consequences of these genetic conflicts in yeast, fruit flies and other model organisms. His work has offered novel explanations for host-pathogen interactions and for the evolution of structural DNA elements (centromeres) that are critical for proper cell division.

Recently, Malik and colleagues have turned their attention to the phenomenon of “viral mimicry,” in which viral proteins can resemble host proteins to hijack important cellular functions. His lab showed that host proteins can evolve to defeat viral mimicry, providing yet another nuance to a never-ending “arms race” between hosts and viruses. The National Science Foundation funded a project of Malik’s that will study and identify cases of “reverse mimicry,” in which host genomes hijack viral proteins to protect themselves against viral infections. In particular he will focus on such a gene that he discovered while a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Hutchinson Center basic scientist Steven Henikoff, Ph.D.

“Harmit thinks creatively and fearlessly about his research,” said colleague Mark T. Groudine, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director of the Hutchinson Center and former director of the Center’s Basic Sciences Division. “His thinking really pushes the envelope, and his ideas have had an enormous impact on the field.”

In addition to his research, Malik is dedicated to educating the general public about the role that evolutionary biology plays in the current understanding and practice of medicine. To this end, he and his colleagues make presentations to the Seattle community. His lab is also in the initial stages of developing a course in bioinformatics to be used by high-school science teachers.

Malik, a native of India, received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He completed his doctoral work in molecular evolutionary biology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., where, under the mentorship of Tom Eickbush, Ph.D., he first became intrigued by the study of genetic conflict. Malik joined the Hutchinson Center faculty in 2003.

Peters, who was nominated for the PECASE by the National Institutes of Health, which supports her work, is an associate member of the Cancer Prevention Program within the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division. She is also a research associate professor of epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

A nutritional and genetic epidemiologist, Peters studies the link between nutrition and cancer prevention - particularly how the interplay of genetics and nutrition can impact cancer risk. Analyzing blood, DNA and tissue samples from large study populations, her work focuses on integrating genetic and molecular methods to better understand the role selenium, vitamin D, calcium and other dietary components may play in preventing prostate and colorectal cancer.

Selenium, for example, found in grains, bread, eggs, meat and fish, plays a key role in activating a small number of enzymes called selenoenzymes, which can protect cells against DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Peters and colleagues are studying whether genetic variations in selenoenzymes are associated with risk for prostate cancer, and whether such genetic variations alter the association between selenium intake and prostate-cancer risk.

Selenium represents only one aspect of Peters’ research. Incorporating molecular and genetic approaches, she also studies vitamin D and calcium in the prevention of colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

Peters also studies genetic variants across the entire genome and is currently conducting genomewide association studies for colon and breast cancer. The goal is to identify new genetic markers that can be used to develop better ways to detect, treat and prevent these diseases. As part of this work, she leads a large international consortium for genomewide association studies of colorectal cancer that combines data from several well-characterized population-based studies. The consortium aims to determine whether genetic variants affect colorectal cancer and whether environmental factors, including diet, drug use and smoking, modify the impact of genetic variations associated with colorectal cancer.

“This award is richly deserved. We at the Hutchinson Center are gratified, but not surprised, that Riki has been recognized for both her extraordinary accomplishments to date and the potential for her significant scientific contributions yet to come,” said Polly Newcomb, Ph.D., M.P.H., head of the Center’s Cancer Prevention Program.

Prior to joining the Hutchinson Center faculty in 2004, she worked at the National Cancer Institute on the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. This experience provided Peters with a wealth of collaborative projects, giving her broad-based experience in nutritional and genetic epidemiology.

A native of Germany, Peters received her master’s and doctoral degrees in nutrition at the University of Kiel, and she received her master’s in public health in epidemiology from the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to Peters and Malik, the Hutchinson Center is home to three other Presidential Early Career Award recipients: basic scientist Cecilia Moens, Ph.D., who studies the zebrafish as a model of vertebrate developmental biology; clinical researcher William Grady, M.D., who studies the mechanisms of colorectal-cancer development; and human immunogenetics researcher Effie Wang Petersdorf, M.D., whose work has helped refine the tissue-typing process, which enables bone-marrow or stem-cell transplant patients to find suitably matched donors.

Source:
Kristen Lidke Woodward

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

The bottom-line message from a decades-long study of monkeys on a restricted diet is simple: Consuming fewer calories leads to a longer, healthier life.

Writing in the journal Science, a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital reports that a nutritious but reduced-calorie diet blunts aging and significantly delays the onset of such age-related disorders as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and brain atrophy.

“We have been able to show that caloric restriction can slow the aging process in a primate species,” says Richard Weindruch, a professor of medicine in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health who leads the National Institute on Aging-funded study. “We observed that caloric restriction reduced the risk of developing an age-related disease by a factor of three and increased survival.”

During the 20-year course of the study, half of the animals permitted to eat freely have survived, while 80 percent of the monkeys given the same diet, but with 30 percent fewer calories, are still alive.

Begun in 1989 with a cohort of 30 monkeys to chart the health effects of the reduced-calorie diet, the study expanded in 1994 with the addition of 46 more rhesus macaques. All of the animals in the study were enrolled as adults at ages ranging from 7 to 14 years. Today, 33 animals remain in the study. Of those, 13 are given free rein at the dinner table, and 20 are on a calorie-restricted diet. Rhesus macaques have an average life span of about 27 years in captivity. The oldest animal currently in the study is 29 years.

The new report details the relationship between diet and aging, according to Weindruch and lead study author Ricki Colman, by focusing on the “bottom-line indicators of aging: the occurrence of age-associated disease and death.”

In terms of overall animal health, Weindruch notes, the restricted diet leads to longer lifespan and improved quality of life in old age. “There is a major effect of caloric restriction in increasing survival if you look at deaths due to the diseases of aging,” he says.

The incidence of cancerous tumors and cardiovascular disease in animals on a restricted diet was less than half that seen in animals permitted to eat freely. Remarkably, while diabetes or impaired glucose regulation is common in monkeys that can eat all they want, it has yet to be observed in any animal on a restricted diet. “So far, we’ve seen the complete prevention of diabetes,” says Weindruch.

In addition, the brain health of animals on a restricted diet is also better, according to Sterling Johnson, a neuroscientist in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “It seems to preserve the volume of the brain in some regions. It’s not a global effect, but the findings are helping us understand if this dietary treatment is having any effect on the loss of neurons” in aging.

In particular, the regions of the brain responsible for motor control and executive functions such as working memory and problem solving seem to be better preserved in animals that consume fewer calories.

“Both motor speed and mental speed slow down with aging,” Johnson explains. “Those are the areas which we found to be better preserved. We can’t yet make the claim that a difference in diet is associated with functional change because those studies are still ongoing. What we know so far is that there are regional differences in brain mass that appear to be related to diet.”

Such an observation, however, is novel, according to Weindruch. “The atrophy or loss of brain mass known to occur with aging is significantly attenuated in several regions of the brain. That’s a completely new observation.”

Since the first studies of caloric restriction in rodents in the1930s, scientists have been intrigued by evidence that reducing calories can effectively extend lifespan. Such studies have been undertaken in a number of different animal species ranging from spiders to humans

The Wisconsin rhesus macaque study, however, is likely to provide the most detailed insight into the phenomenon and its potential application to human health as it has tracked in greatest detail the diets and life histories of an animal that closely resembles humans. Because people are much longer lived than rhesus monkeys, and no similar comprehensive study with human subjects is under way, conclusive evidence of the effects of the diet on human lifespan and disease may never be known.

Source:
Richard Weindruch

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Race fans at this year’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard can get a free oral, head and neck cancer screening.

Volunteers from the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance will provide the screenings.

The screenings, which are quick and painless and involve a physical examination of the mouth as well as feeling of the facial area and neck for abnormalities, are offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 25, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26. The screenings will be offered in the display lot on the east side of the Hall of Fame Museum to race ticket holders.

If any irregularities are found, a person will be referred to his or her primary care physician or a specialist.

“When diagnosed very early, oral and other head and neck cancers can be more easily treated without significant complications, and the chances of survival greatly increase,” said Michael G. Moore, M.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery with the IU School of Medicine. “Many Americans do not recognize the symptoms of these cancers, so an additional benefit of these screenings is that they allow us to educate a larger audience about head and neck cancer.”

According to the American Cancer Society, this year more than 87,560 people will be diagnosed with cancers of the head and neck, which include cancers of the tongue, the rest of the mouth, the salivary glands and inside the throat, the voice box, eye and orbit, thyroid, and the lymph nodes in the upper neck. More than 13,000 will die.

Oral, head, and neck cancer refers to a variety of cancers that develop in the head and neck region, such as the oral cavity (mouth); the pharynx (throat); paranasal sinuses and nasal cavity; the larynx (voice box); thyroid and salivary glands; the skin of the face and neck; and the lymph nodes in the neck. Common warning signs are:

- Red or white patch in the mouth that lasts more than two weeks
- Change in voice or hoarseness that lasts more than two weeks
- Sore throat that does not subside
- Pain or swelling in the mouth or neck that does not subside
- Lump in the neck

Other warning signs that can occur during later stages of the disease include:

- Ear pain
- Difficulty speaking or swallowing
- Difficulty breathing

The most effective prevention strategy remains the cessation of risky behaviors such as smoking, use of chewing tobacco, and excessive alcohol consumption. More than 85 percent of head and neck cancers are related to tobacco use, while others may have a relationship to viral causes such as human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and Epstein-Barr virus.

Lori Hamilton, wife of the late NASCAR racing legend Bobby Hamilton who died of complications of head and neck cancer, is the national spokesperson for this effort.

“When Bobby was diagnosed, he immediately became an advocate of early detection of head and neck cancer,” Hamilton said. “He asked everyone around him to get tested, promoted it to anyone who would listen and became a huge believer in the screening process. It doesn’t hurt, is free and the 10 minutes it takes to do it could save your life. So we are encouraging everyone to please take advantage of this free screening opportunity.”

Funding is provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb and ImClone Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Co.

Source
Indiana University