While developing an important cancer drug, Wistar scientists discovered that mice without the TRAP-1 protein live healthier longer lives, with fewer tumors and signs of aging.
Doctors have long known that people suffering from influenza are likely to do far worse (or even die) if they get a secondary infection in their lungs or airways. Infection from pneumococcus bacteria, in particular, can lead to pneumonia or a variety of other illnesses that could complicate the recovery of flu sufferers. However, Wistar researchers discovered that pneumococcus often colonizes the respiratory tract without illness and if the order of infection was reversed it could actually protect against severe flu-related illness.
The Wistar Institute Cancer Center receives highest rating on the renewal of its National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) as well as funding of $14.9 million over the next five years.
Wistar’s Dr. Luis Montaner leads a Philadelphia-based clinical trial – the largest of its kind to date – focused on depleting the viral reservoir in HIV patients and potentially leading toward a cure for the disease.
A team of melanoma scientists from The Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania collaborate on leading-edge melanoma research.
The Wistar Institute has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the W. W. Smith Charitable Trust to endow a professorship in cancer research.
The Wistar Institute recently welcomed Van Billet, Joseph Goldblum and Art Pappas to its board of trustees.
Today The Wistar Institute, an international leader in basic biomedical research, celebrates the 40th anniversary of its designation as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center, highlighting four decades of progress in cancer research.
In recognition of his life-long determination to bring scientific discovery to benefit humankind by engaging with life sciences partners along the spectrum of academia, industry and government, and his leadership of The Wistar Institute, the Philadelphia Business Journal today named Russel E. Kaufman, M.D., Life Sciences CEO of the Year.
The Wistar Institute today announced its new seven-story research building under construction will carry the names of two of its staunchest and most generous supporters: Robert and Penny Fox.
In his latest book, The Violinist’s Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code, bestselling author Sam Kean untangles the secrets of our genetic code, explaining how genetics has shaped our past, and how DNA will determine humankind’s future.
The Wistar Institute announces the hire of G. Alan Stiles as Chief Operating Officer.
The Wistar Institute, an international leader in cancer research, announces today that it has joined with University of the Sciences (USciences) in offering a regionally unique Ph.D. graduate degree program in cancer biology.
Fundraiser supports brain tumor research at the Wistar Institute.
The Wistar Institute announces Rugang Zhang, Ph.D., will join its faculty as an associate professor in the Gene Expression and Regulation program of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center.
The Wistar Institute proudly announces the election of Helen P. Pudlin as chair of the Institute's board of trustees.
The Wistar Institute has named ABC News correspondent and melanoma survivor Sam Donaldson as an honorary member of its Melanoma Research Center Advisory Board.
Carmen Marc Valvo, whose couture creations are synonymous with glamour and celebrity, is the 2012 recipient of The Wistar Institute President’s Award.
The Wistar Institute recently welcomed two new members, I. Wistar Morris, III and Abraham Morris, to its board of trustees.
The Wistar Institute on February 3rd launched the 2011 Nikon Small World exhibit of award-winning photographs taken through the microscope. Since 2003, Wistar has been the only local host of this exhibit of 20 winning images in Nikon’s international photomicrography competition.
The Wistar Institute today announced that it has signed a funding agreement with the Wellcome Trust, a United Kingdom-based charity, to support the development of a new drug to treat cancers associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
Larry Keinath, The Wistar Institute’s Vice President for Finance and Administration, was named President of the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI) at the national organization’s annual meeting October 2 – 4 in La Jolla, California.
The Wistar Institute announces Maureen Murphy, Ph.D., will join the Institute as a professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program of the Institute’s Cancer Center.
The Wistar Institute announced a five-year, $35 million capital campaign, Building Wistar, Changing the World. The campaign, which to date has raised over $18.5 million in a “quiet” phase, will support Wistar’s first major building expansion in 35 years, and ensure the Institute’s future at the forefront of cancer research and vaccine development.
The Wistar Institute, an international leader in basic biomedical research, today broke ground on a major expansion that will ensure its future at the forefront of cancer research and vaccine development.
The Wistar Institute and Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center have entered into an historic partnership to collaborate on translational cancer research with the aim of bringing the latest discoveries in cancer research to cancer patients in the community.
The Wistar Institute has appointed Qin Liu, M.D., Ph.D., as associate professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program of the Institute’s Cancer Center.
The Wistar Institute recently welcomed Elizabeth McKee Anderson; Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, CFA; and Lawrence V. Stein, Esq., to its board of trustees.
The Wistar Institute has appointed Jessie Villanueva, Ph.D., as assistant professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program of the Institute’s Cancer Center. Villanueva had been a member of the laboratory of Wistar researcher Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., D.Sc. since 2006, starting as a postdoctoral fellow then taking on a position as staff scientist.
A genome-wide survey by researchers at The Wistar Institute shows how our cells create alternate versions of mRNA transcripts by altering how they “read” DNA.
Researchers at The Wistar Institute report the discovery of blood-borne markers that could predict ectopic pregnancy, the leading cause of death among women in the first trimester of pregnancy. Using advanced proteomics techniques, the researchers have determined a panel of 12 proteins that may lead to a sensitive, reliable test for ectopic pregnancy. Their findings are published in the Journal of Proteome Research.
To understand the emerging science of epigenetics—a field that describes how genes may be regulated without altering the underlying DNA itself—scientists are deciphering the many ways in which enzymes act on the proteins surrounding DNA within cells.
Researchers at The Wistar Institute announce the release of an online tool that will help scientists find “gene promoters”—regions along a DNA strand that tell a cell’s transcription machinery where to start reading in order to create a particular protein. The Mammalian Promoter Database (MPromDb) integrates the genome sequencing data generated at Wistar with publicly available data on human and mouse genomics. MPromDb pinpoints known promoters and predicts where new ones are likely to be found, the researchers say.
This past summer saw a revolution in melanoma therapy. Patients whose melanoma lesions contain a mutation in the BRAF gene were successfully treated with a BRAF-specific inhibitor, PLX4032. Reports of the drug trial described shrinking tumors and improved health, yet seven months after therapy began the tumors returned and resumed growing. The researchers see this as further evidence that some cancers must be treated with multiple targeted drugs at the outset of treatment.
The Wistar Institute recently welcomed Vincent Price, Ph.D., and Edward Ziff, Ph.D., to its board of trustees.
Ken-ichi Noma, Ph.D., and Wistar researchers determined the three-dimensional structure of the fission yeast genome, S. pombe. The study is the first to combine microscopy with advanced genomic sequencing techniques, enabling researchers to literally see gene interactions. Applying this technique to the human genome may provide both scientists and physicians a whole new framework from which to better understand genes and disease. The study was published online as a featured article in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
In the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists at The Wistar Institute describe how viral microRNA – small segments of RNA that suppress the effects of gene activity – allows Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) to hide within cells and evade the immune system. The scientists believe their findings may one day enable physicians to flush EBV out of hiding, allowing a healthy immune system to rid the body of the virus.
In the October 1 issue of the journal Cell researchers at The Wistar Institute shed new light on the genetic unknown with the discovery of the ability of long non-coding RNA (ncRNA) to promote gene expression. The researchers believe these long ncRNA molecules may represent so-called gene enhancer elements—short regions of DNA that can increase gene transcription. While scientists have known about gene enhancers for decades, there has been no consensus about how these enhancers work.
The number of times our cells can divide is dictated by telomeres, stretches of DNA at the tips of our chromosomes. Understanding how telomeres keep our chromosomes – and by extension, our genomes – intact is an area of intense scientific focus in the fields of both aging and cancer. Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute have published the first detailed report on the structure and function of a crucial domain in the protein known as Cdc13, which sustains telomeres by clamping to DNA and recruiting replicating enzymes to the area.
The Wistar Institute has appointed ovarian cancer researcher José R. Conejo-Garcia, M.D., Ph.D., as associate professor in the Institute’s Immunology Program. Conejo-Garcia comes to Wistar from Dartmouth Medical School.
Russel E. Kaufman, M.D., president and CEO of The Wistar Institute, has been named co-chair of the Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Congress (GPLSC), effective July 1, 2010. Kaufman joins Tom Muldoon, president of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCVB) as co-chair. Muldoon retires from PCVB this December.
Gerd G. Maul, Ph.D., of Wynnewood, Pa., a faculty member of The Wistar Institute since 1973, died Monday, August 23 at the age of 70. A respected scientist, as well as an accomplished artist and photographer, Dr. Maul led a distinguished career in the study of the structure and function of the cell nucleus – the “control center” of the cell – and its response to viral infection and stress.
In a new study of four adenovirus vectors, researchers from The Wistar Institute show that a reportedly rare human adenovirus, called AdHu26, is not so rare, after all, and would thus be unlikely to be optimal as a vaccine carrier for mass vaccination.
The Wistar Institute today announces that cancer biologist Dario C. Altieri, M.D., has been appointed director of Wistar’s Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center since 1972. Altieri will also take on the role of the Institute’s Chief Scientific Officer and professor in the Wistar Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program.
Helen Pearson, chief features editor at Nature, is the winner of the 2010 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award. Pearson's winning entry titled "One Gene, Twenty Years," investigates research advances and obstacles since the discovery of the cystic fibrosis gene in 1989.
Scott Hensley, Ph.D., an expert on seasonal influenza, has been appointed assistant professor in The Wistar Institute’s Immunology Program. Hensley comes to Wistar from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
In an effort to meet the rising rates of melanoma head-on, The Wistar Institute today announced the creation of The Wistar Institute Melanoma Research Center. The Center brings together scientists, physicians, the life sciences industry, and melanoma advocates in saving lives by advancing new and better therapies for this deadly disease.
Scientists at The Wistar Institute offer a new explanation for the persistent ability of melanoma cells to self-renew, one of the reasons why melanoma remains the deadliest form of skin cancer. The concept of the “dynamic stemness” of melanoma can explain why melanoma cells behave like both conventional tumor cells and cancer stem cells.
The Wistar Institute and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia today named Wistar Institute principal investigator Paul M. Lieberman, Ph.D., an expert in gene expression and regulation, as the McNeil Professor of Molecular Medicine and Translational Research.
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