Biomedical Research Core Facilities
Summer 2021 Newsletter
The Perelman School of Medicine is proud to support our integral research core facilities and research teams. Please stay safe and be well!
In this issue:

  • Announcements
  • Dr. Christopher Petucci Appointed Core Director Meeting Chair 
  • Penn & CHOP Proteomics Core Facilities Now Merged
  • Events
  • Registration Now Open for Virtual Cores Day - 9/30/21
  • Registration Now Open for NERLSCD21 - 11/3-11/5/21
  • China International Biotechnology Conference & Exhibition - 9/11-9/13/21
  • Core Facilities Spotlight
  • OCRC Tumor BioTrust Collection
Announcements - Dr. Christopher Petucci Appointed as Core Director Meeting Chair
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Christopher Petucci of the CVI Metabolomics Core Facility has been appointed as our inaugural Core Director Meeting Chair. Dr. Petucci’s term will begin on October 1st and run for two years. His goals as Chair include using an open dialogue to build further unity among core directors and promoting core facility excellence with the aim of increasing high impact publications and research grants.

Previously serving as Chair of the Delaware Valley Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group at Villanova University, as well as a member of the Philadelphia American Chemical Society’s Board of Directors, Dr. Petucci brings a wealth of experience to this role. His tenure as a Co-Chair and organizer of the 2017 Asilomar Conference of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry has prepared Dr. Petucci to lead informative and efficient meetings with our Core Director community.

Please join us as we congratulate Dr. Petucci and look forward to a new era of community within PSOM core facilities! 
Announcements - Penn & CHOP Proteomics Core Facilities Now Merged
As announced earlier this year, we are pleased to inform you that the Penn QPRC has now merged physically and administratively with the CHOP Proteomics Core Facility.

With its combined resources ensuring optimized and efficient services, this newly unified core facility has been designed to meet the proteomics needs of the entire Penn/CHOP community from a single physical location within the Abramson Research Center.

Please click here to learn more about available core facility services, and here to read the original announcement memo from Drs. Lynch, Soslowsky, and Oliver.
Events: Registration Now Open for Virtual Cores Day – 9/30/21
We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for Virtual Cores Day on September 30, 2021!

Held from 10am-2pm, the annual Cores Day event is a joint venture with CHOP, PSOM and Wistar, a platform effort to showcase the many outstanding biomedical research resources and services available throughout our campus. This event is an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to interface with a multitude of research core facilities via informational presentations and live chats. New this year, our event will be held via the PheedLoop event management platform, with an aim to enrich and enhance the Cores Day experience for participants and attendees.
Please click here for free registration, and be sure to check out the Cores Day website for event updates.

We hope to see you on Thursday, September 30! 
 
Please send any questions to April Weakley (aweakley@pennmedicine.upenn.edu).

Events: Registration Now Open for NERLSCD21 - 11/3-11/5/21
The NERLSCD organizing committee is thrilled to announce the 16th annual fall meeting will be held in person from 11/3-11/5/21, in Portsmouth, NH.

The NERLSCD meeting has emerged as one of the best annual regional gatherings for core facility directors, managers, staff and administrators to network with colleagues; learn about biotechnology advances and applications; to discuss the challenges faced in implementing shared research resources and to share stories of success.

Please visit https://nerlscd.abrf.org/ for program and registration information. 
Events: China International Biotechnology Conference & Exhibition - 9/11-9/13/21
BIOTEC-CHINA 2021 will be held from 9/11-9/13/21 in Taizhou China Medical City Convention and Exhibition Center. The conference attracts biotechnology and pharma leaders from around the world to network, creating new opportunities and partnerships. The event will bring together a wide spectrum of life science professionals, and touch on application areas such as drug discovery, biomanufacturing, genomics, nanotechnology and cell therapy.  

For more information please visit: http://www.biotec-china.com/
Core Facilities Spotlight: OCRC Tumor BioTrust Collection
The Ovarian Cancer Research Center Tumor BioTrust Collection is open and continues to collect fresh cancer tissue specimens, as well as plasma, serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), blood and other biological samples from various cancer cases with a focus on gynecologic cancers. We also house formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples including tissue microarray (TMA) construction and immunohistochemistry. Samples collected through the Penn Legacy Tissue Program (PLTP) (e.g., rapid autopsy) are also available and a quote can be provided upon request.

We will also work with investigators to prospectively collect specific samples to support their research within Penn research community as well as in outside academic institutions. We will be working with biotech/bio-pharma companies if it is within the confines of a collaboration.

We are offering the following sample types:

  • Fresh Tumor Tissue
  • Frozen Tumor Tissue
  • Enzyme Digested Tumor Cells
  • Serum
  • Plasma
  • Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC)
  • OCT
  • Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE)
  • Tissue Microarray (TMA)
  • Samples from rapid autopsies

More info about the core and pricing can be found at: https://www.med.upenn.edu/OCRCBioTrust/
Representative Publications:
 
CAR-T cell-mediated depletion of immunosuppressive tumor-associated macrophages promotes endogenous antitumor immunity and augments adoptive immunotherapy.
Rodriguez-Garcia A, Lynn RC, Poussin M, Eiva MA, Shaw LC, O'Connor RS, Minutolo NG, Casado-Medrano V, Lopez G, Matsuyama T, Powell DJ Jr.
Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 9;12(1):877. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-20893-2.
 
Inhibition of relaxin autocrine signaling confers therapeutic vulnerability in ovarian cancer.
Burston HE, Kent OA, Communal L, Udaskin ML, Sun RX, Brown KR, Jung E, Francis KE, La Rose J, Lowitz JK, Drapkin R, Mes-Masson AM, Rottapel R.
J Clin Invest. 2021 Feb 9:142677. doi: 10.1172/JCI142677.
 
Combining PARP with ATR inhibition overcomes PARP inhibitor and platinum resistance in ovarian cancer models.
Kim H, Xu H, George E, Hallberg D, Kumar S, Jagannathan V, Medvedev S, Kinose Y, Devins K, Verma P, Ly K, Wang Y, Greenberg RA, Schwartz L, Johnson N, Scharpf RB, Mills GB, Zhang R, Velculescu VE, Brown EJ, Simpkins F.
Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 24;11(1):3726. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17127-2.
 
PARP Theranostic Auger Emitters Are Cytotoxic in BRCA Mutant Ovarian Cancer and Viable Tumors from Ovarian Cancer Patients Enable Ex-Vivo Screening of Tumor Response. Molecules.
Riad A, Gitto SB, Lee H, Winters HD, Martorano PM, Hsieh CJ, Xu K, Omran DK, Powell DJ Jr, Mach RH, Makvandi M.
2020 Dec 19;25(24):6029. doi: 10.3390/molecules25246029.
 
An autologous humanized patient-derived-xenograft platform to evaluate immunotherapy in ovarian cancer
Sarah B. Gitto, Hyoung Kim, Stavros Rafail, Dalia K. Omran, Sergey Medvedev, Yasuto Kinose, Alba Rodriguez-Garcia, Ahron J. Flowers, Haineng Xu, Lauren E. Schwartz, Daniel J. Powell Jr., Fiona Simpkins
Gynecologic Oncology 156 (2020) 222e232.
 
CAR T Cells Targeting MISIIR for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer and Other Gynecologic Malignancies
Alba Rodriguez-Garcia, Prannda Sharma, Mathilde Poussin, Alina C. Boesteanu, Nicholas G. Minutolo, Sarah B. Gitto, Dalia K. Omran, Matthew K. Robinson, Gregory P. Adams, Fiona Simpkins, and Daniel J. Powell, Jr.
Molecular Therapy (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.11.028.
 
Imaging Collagen Alterations in STICs and High Grade Ovarian Cancers in the Fallopian Tubes by Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy
Eric C. Rentchler, Kristal L. Gant, Ronny Drapkin, Manish Patankar and Paul J. Campagnola,*
Cancers 2019, 11, 1805; doi:10.3390/cancers11111805.
 
CD105 Is Expressed in Ovarian Cancer Precursor Lesions and Is Required for Metastasis to the Ovary
Shoumei Bai, Wanhong Zhu, Lan Coffman, Anda Vlad, Lauren E. Schwartz, Esther Elishaev, Ronny Drapkin and Ronald J Buckanovich
Cancers 2019, 11, 1710; doi:10.3390/cancers11111710.
 
Innervation of cervical carcinoma is mediated by cancer-derived exosomes
Christopher T. Lucido, Emily Wynja, Marianna Madeoa, Caitlin S.Williamson, Lauren E. Schwartz, Brittney A. Imblumc, Ronny Drapkin, Paola D. Vermeer
Gynecol Oncol. 2019 Jul;154(1):228-235.

Contact Us
Ovarian Cancer Research Center Tumor BioTrust Collection
Ehay Jung, Technical Director
Smilow CTR 08-191A
3400 Civic Center Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-746-5137
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