Hey Group,

I ran a standard on Thursday afternoon with the new reagents that I prepared. I got results that were extremely close to those from a few weeks ago. The phosphate standard is still not consistent with those from Rachel Cooper's book. I can prepare a new phosphate (it is another that I prepared with the last test) if we think that we should be closer to Rachel.

We also started a new lab book, so it is labeled with Myrna's name and the group information.

See you all soon!

Marrissa

Hey check out meebo

should we switch over to it???

let me know what you think it is meebo.com i think

have a great vacation

best

Myrna

Next week I am out of the office and I cant have you do experiments when I am not there for now so

I would like you to meet if you can and read some articles or blog to eachother.

Below is an abstract H Hoppe an early perhaps the first marine extoenzyme user: I might have time to put one copy of this in the envelope on my door.

You can get the article thru our USC connections. Read this article. Then Search at USC for ectoenzymes in marine environment and find one article that you like.Tell us which one you selected Read the abstract, look at the charts, tell us what it is about on the blog. THe process of reading a scientific article is interesting. 

The Abstract 

Gives a summary of the article including purpose and significance

THe Charts: Tell in graphic form what the results are

With a comparison of these two, you can think about what the results mean to you before you read what the author thinks ( and you may be suprised how differently you might initially and even finally understand the data than the author does). Tell us what the charts tell you. Blog us. Read the rest of the article if you want to

NOTE: many people use ectoenzymes ( also in medicine and thin films this has some applications maybe even in cancer research DJ tell you dad :) ) Find an article that interests you.

NEXT - MONDAY - Nhi Marrissa DJ, please grab the key for my office from the big key ring and DJ will tell you about playing with the standards on the computer. THe three of you can sit in the office and either read the articles and look for others, and look at the standards and play the game of standard (!) etc.

WHAT I EXPECT

a little more literacy about ectoenzymes and standards.

a little more communication and exchange of ideas between you all

TONY - I will not be in, so I guess dont come in this week ok?? ANY QUESTIONS?????? thank you all! Myrna

Hey lab group,

We did it!

Today we did the standards and were able to test the samples with a new 100um stock solution that I made up. The color looked the same to me as it did on the other two runs, but the readings worked this time. The standards made a straight line, so the results look pretty pleasing. They don't match up with Rachel's data, but we still need to graph the data to see if the slope is the same as Rachel's.

Good luck and have fun tomorrow!

Marrissa

Any student
in good standing and enrolled in the College may apply for a research
stipend of up to $3,000 to support a summer research project.  This
stipend may be used to pay for travel, equipment, living expenses or
fees related to the research effort.  Students participating in one of
the College’s “Problems Without Passports” research courses may
use these funds for tuition.

Students participating in the following types of programs may apply:

● Assisting a USC professor with a research project
● Participating in a team research activity under the supervision
of a USC professor
● Research for a departmental honors program
● Research with a lab, consulting firm or an internship that
involves an independent research project

There may be other research projects that we will consider for funding.
 Students are encouraged to apply and the selection committee will
determine whether the proposal project is eligible for funding.  No one
receiving wages for a project will be considered.

Applications must include the following:

● A brief description of the project-500 word maximum
● A STARS report
● A letter of recommendation from the professor supervising the
project
● A budget for the project that includes information about other
funding sources

All materials must be submitted to the Vice Dean of Undergraduate
Programs in ADM 304.  Application due date is April 30, 2008.  Questions
may be directed to Kimberly Maes at kmaes@usc.edu .

OK we were all working together in the lab well and yes Merissa states it was v confusing with som many people. I agree. I think we can split into two groups.

ALSO

it is important that everyone can do the experiment themselves eventually. The idea is to do a series of things all at once, one person doing enzyme work, one analyzing DNA one doing low level PO4 etc. The reason we are working together right now is to help eachother and get the idea. I think it is time to begin to work together independently. Let me know your opinion on this

also Please someon blog the information from yesterday

also

When we now write in the lab book, let us think about it as if it were a cook book, a recipe, with comments. We can then refer to the recipe to make the cake, and then see the comments on the bottom

so

NAME

DATE

PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENT SIMPLY STATED

THE THINGS NEEDED TO DO THE METHOD OR IF ON A PREVIOUS PAGE< REFER TO THE PAGE

A CHART

A CHART

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

What do you all think of this yakyak

let me know

thanks

Myrna

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080201/experimental-vaccine-halts-prostate-cancer-in-mice.htm

(In the US News)

Experimental Vaccine Halts Prostate Cancer in Mice

Human trials may start in two years, California researcher says

FRIDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental prostate cancer vaccine has stopped the progress of the disease in 90 percent of the mice who got it, California researchers report.

"The vaccine turned the cancer into a chronic, manageable disease," said W. Martin Kast, lead author of a report published in the Feb. 1 issue of Cancer Research.

Twenty mice, genetically bred to develop prostate cancer, were given the vaccine in a two-step process, said Kast, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

When the mice were 8 weeks old, they got one injection consisting of a fragment of DNA that coded for prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA), a protein that is overproduced as prostate cancers grow. That injection alerted the immune system, Kast said.

A second shot, given two weeks later, used a modified horse virus to deliver the gene for PSCA, throwing the immune system into full action against the tumor.

Only two of the 20 vaccinated mice developed full-blown prostate cancer at the end of one year. Twenty other similarly bred mice who did not get the vaccine died of their cancers.

A vaccine for prostate cancer already exists, but it is only designed to extend survival for men in advanced stages of the disease and it has not been approved for use in the United States.

The new vaccine is designed to be used much earlier, Kast said. "Our vaccine approach would be to give it before you actually develop the disease," he said. Candidates for vaccination would be men who have high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein associated with the cancer.

Physicians now perform biopsies in most such cases, looking for evidence of cancer, which is usually inconclusive. The vaccine could be given instead of the "watchful waiting" now common for these men, Kast said.

The series of animal tests needed to prepare for a first human trial will take perhaps two years, Kast said. As for marketing the vaccine, he added, "I have already started to talk to some companies about this."

A precedent for such use already exists in the form of the vaccine against cervical cancer that is in medical use in the United States, Kast noted.

A new urine test that could help narrow the number of men diagnosed with possible prostate cancer was also described in the same issue of the journal.

"It is an extension of a current test," said Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan, director of the University of Michigan Center for Translational Pathology and lead author of the report.

The current test, developed at Michigan and marketed by the biotechnology company Gen-Probe, screens for one molecular marker of prostate cancer. The new test screens for four more key markers.

"It is for early screening to supplement PSA testing," Chinnaiyan said. "The benefit of this is that it could spare some people from some unnecessary biopsies. Eighty percent of men with high PSA levels don't have cancer. This could pick up 80 percent of them."

Both reports brought guarded reaction from Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancers for the American Cancer Society.

The California work, Brook said, "is an interesting direction in terms of a way to develop a vaccine, but it is a long way from clinical use."

As for the new test, he added, while it could possibly reduce the number of biopsies, it does not fulfill the big hope for prostate cancer tests: distinguishing between slow-growing cancers that are best left alone and fast-growing malignancies that require quick and aggressive treatment.

"We really need a better handle on which prostate cancers will be more aggressive," he said.

Meanwhile, researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute report in the same journal that they have discovered genetic factors that drive the development of prostate cancer in black men, who are more likely to die of the disease than whites.

An analysis shows numerous differences in genes governing the immune response to cancer, they reported.

Here is the actual journal published that was quoted above.

Prostate Stem Cell Antigen Vaccination Induces a Long-term Protective Immune Response against Prostate Cancer in the Absence of Autoimmunity

Maria de la Luz Garcia-Hernandez¹, Andrew Gray¹, Bolyn Hubby², Otto J. Klinger¹ and W. Martin Kast¹

¹ Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California and ² AlphaVax, Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Requests for reprints: W. Martin Kast, University of Southern California, 1450 Biggy Street, NRT 7507, Los Angeles, CA 90033. Phone: 323-442-3870; Fax: 323-442-4433; E-mail: mkast@usc.edu .

Key Words: prostate cancer • vaccination • PSCA • cancer vaccines • animal/transgenic models for tumor immunobiology • genitourinary cancers: prostate

Abstract: Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) is an attractive antigen to target using therapeutic vaccines because of its overexpression in prostate cancer, especially in metastatic tissues, and its limited expression in other organs. Our studies offer the first evidence that a PSCA-based vaccine can induce long-term protection against prostate cancer development in prostate cancer–prone transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice. Eight-week-old TRAMP mice displaying prostate intraepithelial neoplasia were vaccinated with a heterologous prime/boost strategy consisting of gene gun–delivered PSCA-cDNA followed by Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicons encoding PSCA. Our results show the induction of an immune response against a newly defined PSCA epitope that is mediated primarily by CD8 T cells. The prostates of PSCA-vaccinated mice were infiltrated by CD4-positive, CD8-positive, CD11b-positive, and CD11c-positive cells. Vaccination induced MHC class I expression and cytokine production [IFN-, tumor necrosis factor-, interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-4, and IL-5] within prostate tumors. This tumor microenvironment correlated with low Gleason scores and weak PSCA staining on tumor cells present in hyperplastic zones and in areas that contained focal and well-differentiated adenocarcinomas. PSCA-vaccinated TRAMP mice had a 90% survival rate at 12 months of age. In contrast, all control mice had succumbed to prostate cancer or had heavy tumor loads. Crucially, this long-term protective immune response was not associated with any measurable induction of autoimmunity. The possibility of inducing long-term protection against prostate cancer by vaccination at the earliest signs of its development has the potential to cause a dramatic paradigm shift in the treatment of this disease. [Cancer Res 2008;68(3):861–9]

To find the full text or supplemental data:

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/vol68/issue3/

and Ctrl F the word Kast

HI ALL

DJ is teaching me how to blog

so here I go. Today we are going to do an experiment with DJ and Tony to see why we are having so much trouble with the method. THe possibilities are bad standard stock, or bad reagent. We are DOING THE MATH RIGHT ! YAY and working hard too. so First I will map out what to do with them. We plan to clean up everything with 1/2 N HCl also known as 6 N or 6 normal. then.......... make up a little new of everything. then set up a matrix test. for this test we will only use 10 uM not a whole bunch of standards. ( we might do 5 uM too) We will cross test to see what the problem is and then we can go on !

get it????

Girlsinplanewithwind

Hey Everyone,

Nhi and I did the phosphate standard on Thursday. We diluted the sample like we were supposed to do. The acetic acid won't be any good after Monday, so make sure that we throw it out. It only lasts a week. I had to leave at 5, so she finished up with the spectrophotometer without me. None of the samples were registering, so I figured I wouldn't miss anything. She told me that only the highest concentrations showed any results.

See you all later!

Marrissa