Congratulations to University of Minnesota physicians and researchers for recently earning these special honors.
GRANTS:
- Simona Ognjanovic, PhD: Received an American Cancer Society Institutional Grant entitled: Epidemiology of HBV and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the major risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development worldwide. World Heath Organization initiated a Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS) in which 120,000 children were randomized into two groups, of which one received the HBV vaccine and the other did not. The purpose of the GHIS study is to determine whether vaccination against HBV will lead to reduction in HCC risk. However, HBV vaccine is not effective in 5% of children who develop chronic HBV despite vaccination. We have proposed to study genetic variants in inflammatory genes to determine whether individuals carrying genotypes for weaker inflammatory response would more likely be non-responders to HBV and thereby develop chronic HBV infection, a major risk factor for HCC.
PUBLICATION CITATIONS:
- Wang H, Grzywacz B, Sukovich D, McCullar V, Cao Q, Lee AB, Blazar BR, Cornfield DN, Miller JS, Verneris MR.
The unexpected effect of cyclosporin A on CD56+CD16- and CD56+CD16+ natural killer cell subpopulations. Blood. 2007 Sep 1.
The work addresses the influence of an immune suppressive drug (cyclosporine A) on NK cell function. This drug is commonly used after umbilical cord blood and bone marrow transplantation.
- Miller JS, Weisdorf DJ, Burns LJ, Slungaard A, Wagner JE, Verneris MR, Cooley S, Wangen R, Fautsch SK, Nicklow R, DeFor T, Blazar BR.
Lymphodepletion followed by donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) causes significantly more acute graft-versus-host disease than DLI alone. Blood. 2007 Oct 1.
This paper tested a modified approach to treat leukemia relapse after bone marrow transplant, known as donor lymphocyte infusion. We used chemotherapy to “make space” in the blood for the new anti-leukemia cells. This report was the first to identify the toxicity profile with this approach.
ACHIEVEMENTS/RECOGNITION
- Drs. Claudio Brunstein, John Wagner and Bruce Blazar
On September 6, 2007, a ground breaking clinical trial was initiated at the University of Minnesota using cellular therapy to decrease the risk of immune reactions common in patients undergoing blood and marrow transplantation. It is hoped this may lead to overall improved survival rates for blood cancer patients, as well as new treatments for diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.