The plan also highlights research progress and accomplishments supported by the NCI; the development of an experimental balloon to screen for Barrett's Esophagus, led by Drs. Sanford Markowitz and Amitabh Chak, was featured on page 22-23 [ Moinova, Sci Transl Med, 2018]. 

Oct 16, 2018 | Tinkham Veale University Center, CWRU

Oct 5, 12p | WRB 1-413

Join us Friday, October 5 at 12p in the WRB 1-413 to hear Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, PhD, present " "Leveraging BIG DATA for novel cancer discoveries."  This seminar is p resented by the Cancer Prevention, Control and Population Research Program of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan is multi-disciplinary researcher trained in biostatistics, population genetics and human genetics. Her role in team science has been essential for multiple successful multi-disciplinary research projects. She is the PI of the Ohio Brain Tumor Study (OBTS), which has served as a multi-site tissue source site for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and she is the scientific PI of the Central Brain Tumor Registry for the United States (CBTRUS). Hence, she has extensive experience with multi-site, brain tumor, patient recruitment and bio specimen collection, storage, and clinical annotation. She is the Associate Director for Bioinformatics at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Associate Director for Translational Informatics for the Institute of Computational Biology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where she is responsible for managing Bioinformatics analysis of high throughput "omics" data and implementing and maintaining a translational informatics solution for research. In addition, she is the Director for Research Health Analytics and Informatics at University Hospitals Health System (UHHS), where she helps facilitate access to and analysis of UHHS data for population health. In addition, she is the Director of the Cleveland Center for Health Outcomes Research (CCHOR) with a primary objective of optimizing "big data" for clinical outcomes modeling, including individualized patient predictions that would drive operational and clinical decision making. Therefore, she has extensive experience in hypothesis development, study design and statistical analysis for studies of various phenotypes in humans and animals and analysis of all types of high throughput "omics" data and clinical outcomes. 

Big data comes in many forms leading to many different types of research opportunities for discovery and validation of health related hypotheses. Here, Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan will define big data, discuss what types of big data are available for cancer research, and provide an example of how big data has been used to change how brain tumors are diagnosed worldwide.

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute (LRI) is hosting the 9th annual meeting of the Midwest Association of Core Directors, the regional chapter of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities.

Program Highlights

• Newest Highlights in Shared Resources Technology & Expertise: Introductory ("101-level") and State of the Science level breakout meetings on Genomics, Mass Spec, Imaging, Administration, Drug Discovery, Entrepreneurship, and RNA Sciences.
• Satellite Workshops: Option to attend a pre and/or post Satellite Workshop, made possible by supporting Platinum Plus Level Sponsors FEI Thermo Fisher and Ilumina.
• Core Facility Tours: Pre-conference Core Facility Tours of Cleveland Clinic or Case Western University Research Sites.
• Tour Microsoft HoLoLens Facility: Limited space to sign up for a unique peek at the Microsoft HoLoLens Facility at CWRU! Only 20 people will be able to see this unique 'lens' into medical education using holographic technology.

Who Should Attend?

All members of the research community are encouraged to attend this conference to learn how core facilities can move your science ahead! 

Registration Discount for CWRU SOM Employees

CWRU School of Medicine Office of Research Administration will cover 50% of the registration fee for CWRU SOM employees. Contact Matt DeVries
( [email protected]) for discount code!

Pre-proposal Deadline: Nov 28, 2018

Young Investigator Translational Immuno-Oncology Team Science Award

Deadline: Dec 3, 2018

The 2018 MRFBC-BMS Young Investigator Translational Immuno-Oncology Team Science Award is offered through the MRF Breakthrough Consortium (MRFBC) and generously funded through a grant by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). This is a two-year team award of up to $150,000 per year ($300,000 total) to encourage young investigators to not only stay engaged in melanoma research focused on immuno-oncology, but to also foster institutional cross-collaborations. 

Medical Student Research Award

Deadline: Nov 6, 2018

The  2019 Medical Student Research Award  application period is now open. The Medical Student Research Award is a one-year, $3,000 grant supporting medical students early in their careers who are conducting clinical or laboratory-based melanoma research. Eligible areas of research can include the prevention, biology or treatment of melanoma and may focus on the study of cutaneous, ocular, mucosal or pediatric melanoma.

In new findings published in the journal  MBio a team of researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and from China successfully used a Zika virus vaccine currently under development to kill  glioblastoma, an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer that kills most patients in less than two years-the same type of cancer that recently killed Senator John McCain. ..." The truth is, if you take out the non-stem cells, which could be as much as 98 percent of the cancer, they can all eventually return," says Andrew Sloan, a neuro-oncologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center...Although purposely injecting someone with a disease as a medical treatment-virotherapy-can seem haphazard and dangerous, researchers have long worked on the development of viruses as cancer-fighting agents. "Using viruses as a form of cancer therapy has potential," says Justin Lathia, a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center who was not involved with the study. "The key advantages are the virus's ability to simultaneously kill tumor cells directly as well as activate the immune system. But a major disadvantage is the ability to control viral replication. These approaches could still have off-target effects," and essentially turn the virus against healthy cells in the body.

A $4.7 million grant from the NHLBI will support a Cleveland Clinic-led research consortium's effort to develop a better risk-prediction tool for cancer-associated venous thromboembolism.  The 5-year grant will fund research led by  Keith R. McCrae, MD, professor of molecular medicine at Case Western Reserve University and staff physician in the department of hematology and oncology at Cleveland Clinic, and  Alok A. Khorana, MD,  professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, both of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Research sites for the project include Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute and Lerner Research Institute, as well as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School and University of Cincinnati.