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by Don Butterfield, UNMHSC, 505-272-3690
The W.M. Keck Foundation of California has awarded the UNM Health Sciences Center a million dollar grant to support cancer research studies that will take advantage of new tools developed by the Human Genome Project. This grant will facilitate the collaboration of three outstanding groups of scientists who bring different skills to focus on a complex biologic problem: the genetic basis of human cancer.
Project investigators include UNM School of Medicine faculty associated with the UNM Cancer Research & Treatment Center, faculty from the UNM High Performance Computing Education and Research Center (HPCERC) which is now considered one of the top five academic computing centers in the U.S., and scientists at Sandia National Laboratories who have developed powerful new tools for genomic experiments and data analysis.
Scientists at the UNM Health Sciences Center are focused on applying new technologies developed by the Human Genome Project to determine the genetic basis of human cancer. These scientists are utilizing new technologies that allow them to simultaneously examine the pattern of expression of over 30,000 human genes in each individual cancer cell. The technologies use tiny "microarray" chips that contain sequences from each human gene and such chips can be used to determine the specific genes that are expressed in normal versus cancer cells. However, such experiments generate tremendously large and complex datasets, the analysis of which can be daunting. Thus, these UNM scientists turned to colleagues at UNM-HPCERC and Sandia National Laboratories who are experts in high performance computing and computational methods.
Computational experts at UNM-HPCERC will be developing new methods to store and analyze large complex datasets generated from genomics experiments. Sandia National Laboratory collaborators are bringing highly sophisticated engineering and mathematical capabilities to the project to develop new tools to visualize these datasets and perform even more complex experiments. Participation of each of these groups is vital because it allows for the integration of biomedical research, engineering, physics, mathematics and computers.
Funds provided by the W.M. Keck Foundation will be used to acquire and produce new equipment for a genome laboratory at the UNM Health Sciences Center, construct new scanning and imaging instruments and data visualizations tools at Sandia, and to apply high performance computing and information systems at UNM-HPCERC.
"We are tremendously excited about receiving support from the prestigious W.M. Keck Foundation for our work," said Lead Project Investigator, Cheryl Willman, M.D., professor of the Department of Pathology, and director of the UNM Cancer Research & Treatment Center. "These funds cement our collaboration with UNM-HPCERC and Sandia National Laboratories and are allowing us to bring highly sophisticated computing methods and engineering tools to our data analysis. This collaboration is unique and I believe sets the stage for New Mexico to become a leader in the growing field of human genomics."
Willman's own research component of the program will also be supported by a new $5.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that will apply microarray and genomic analysis to the study of human leukemia. Willman was one of only 20 scientists nationally to receive support for cancer genomics research under the new NCI Director's Challenge Program. Willman and her colleagues receive leukemia cells from over half of the children in the United States affected by leukemia and nearly one third of adults, giving the UNM Cancer Research & Treatment Center the largest leukemia tissue repository in the world.
"We believe that using these new genome technologies, we will not only determine the specific patterns of gene expression in each individual who is affected by leukemia, but figure out what causes leukemia in the first place. It is our hope for the future that such studies will allow us to develop specific and more effective therapies targeted to each individual patient with leukemia and all other kinds of cancer," said Willman.
"As our research efforts continue to grow, the partnerships we
develop are critical to the ongoing success of our research," said
R. Philip Eaton, M.D., interim vice president for health sciences. "We
are particularly pleased to integrate our efforts in human genomics at
UNM with Sandia National Laboratories, and I believe we will become a
leading program in genomics in the U.S."
On Thursday, July 13, at 3 p.m., the UNM Cancer Research & Treatment
Center, the UNM-Albuquerque High Performance Computing Education and Research
Center and Sandia National Laboratories will publicly announce the grant
by hosting a presentation and reception. The presentation and reception
will take place at the UNM Cancer Research & Treatment Center, 915
Camino de Salud, room 240.
In addition to Willman, project investigators from the UNM School of Medicine include: Jac Nickoloff, Ph.D., professor and chair, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; Scott Ness, Ph.D., assistant professor, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; and Stephanie Ruby, Ph.D., associate professor, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology.
Investigators from the UNM High Performance Computing Education and Research Center include Frank Gilfeather, Ph.D., professor, Mathematics and Statistics, director of the HPCERC; Brian Smith, Ph.D., professor, Computer Science, and chief scientist for HPCERC; and Susan Atlas, Ph.D., research associate professor, Physics and Astronomy, and associate director for science and engineering research at the Albuquerque component of HPCERC.
Project investigators from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque are George Davidson, Ph.D., manager, Evolutionary Computing Methods Department; and David Haaland, Ph.D., senior scientist.
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