Promise – Summer 2007
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PromiseSummer 2007 A Tall Order Page 8 Features 4 A Beautiful Life A publication of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Summer 2007 Matching gifts, saving lives Promise 5 A Marriage of Generosity and Vision Parviz and Susan Tayebati 6 Timing is Everything The hospital’s newest affiliate clinic 8 A Tall Order Tiny girl, huge miracle 12 Brave Heart Battling the enemy within 15 Germ Warfare St. Jude infection control 15 18 Gold in Those Hills Harnessing the human genome 21 Life Coach Overcoming osteosarcoma Highlights 21 2 News and Achievements Perspective 24 Jaime Pressly It’s All About the Children 18 6 Hospital Director and ALSAC Vice President Photo Editor Contributing Writers Marc Kusinitz, PhD Public Information: St. Jude is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Promise Chief Executive Officer of Communications Jere Parobek Summer Freeman Jon McCullers, MD 1-866-2STJUDE (278-5833), For inquiries about stories in this pub- is a quarterly publication of the William E. Evans, PharmD George Shadroui Ruth Ann Hensley Ava Middleton ext. 3306 lication, call (901) 495-2125 or e-mail Department of Public Relations Photographers Lynda Nance Joseph Opferman, PhD [email protected]. Articles and ALSAC Chief Executive Officer St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Director of Public Relations Peter Barta Carrie L. Strehlau Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD photos may be reprinted with permission. John P. Moses Donations: 1-800-822-6344 Judith W. Black Seth Dixon Betsy Taylor Carrie L. Strehlau ©2007. 332 N. Lauderdale St. Visit our Web site at www.stjude.org. Memphis, Tennessee 38105 Jeffrey Hanshaw Lois Young Penny Tramontozzi ALSAC/St. Jude Publications Manager Ann-Margaret Hedges Regina Watson On the cover: St. Jude patient Brooklyn Chief Communications Officer and Editor Editorial Advisory Board St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s mission is to advance and Senior Vice President Sally Wiard Graves-Bingle. Story on page 8; photo by Elizabeth Jane Walker Guest Author Lisa Baker American Lebanese Syrian Associated cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic John Zacher Peter Barta. Ken Ferber Jaime Pressly Leslie Davidson Charities and ALSAC are registered diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the Art Director Steve Zatechka, PhD trademarks. Mark Hendricks vision of our founder, Danny Thomas, no child is denied treat- Jessica W. Anderson Christine Kirk ment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay. Enzyme recruitment the April 20 issue of Journal of Clinical how certain genes known to prevent Parents might one day give their Oncology. Sue Kaste, DO, of Radiological cancer also guide the nervous system’s children a weekly treatment with a nasal Sciences is the paper’s senior author. development before birth and during H i g h l i g h t s spray of virus enzymes to prevent them infancy by repairing DNA damage. from getting severe middle ear infections, Seeing double The researchers demonstrated that PETER BARTA based on results of a study done by St. Jude investigators had a the Brca2 gene plays a dual role in the investigators from St. Jude and The molecule’s eye view of the human cell’s developing nervous system, eliminating Rockefeller University in New York. Such DNA repair kit as it assembled on a errors in the DNA of newly made copies a treatment would kill the disease-causing double-strand break to link together the of chromosomes and suppressing the onset bacteria without the use of antibiotics, broken ends. Double-strand breaks are of the brain cancer medulloblastoma. thereby avoiding the problem of antibiotic ruptures that cut completely across the Peter McKinnon, PhD, of Genetics and resistance. twisted, ladder-like structure of DNA, Tumor Cell Biology is senior author of a A report on this study appears in the breaking it into two pieces. report on this work in the May 3, 2007, March 2007 issue of the online journal Using a technique developed for this online issue of the The EMBO Journal. l PLoS Pathogens. Jonathan McCullers, project, the researchers determined when MD, of Infectious Diseases is the paper’s repair proteins arrived at or around the first author. DNA break. A report on this work appears in Nature Cell Biology, May 2007. The Things No One Excellent center findings are important because disruption Tells You About St. Jude has been designated one of of the precise movement of these repair six Centers of Excellence for Influenza proteins can cause mutations, cell death or Pediatric Cancer Research and Surveillance funded by cancer, and the ability to track the process Treatment the National Institute of Allergy and closely will give researchers critical Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of insights into what can go wrong with 10 the National Institutes of Health. Robert DNA repair. Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, BY CATHERINE GREENSLADE Webster, PhD, of Infectious Diseases is St. Jude Cancer Center director, is the principal investigator for the program at paper’s senior author. 1. You will age 10 years in one day— diagnosis day. St. Jude. 2. You will age another 10 years during The goal of the centers is to help Toxic inheritance treatment. the federal government prepare for and St. Jude investigators have discovered 3. You will age yet another 10 years respond to seasonal influenza as well inherited variations in certain genes that waiting for that first post-treatment Patient Stephan Boehme meets supermodel, television personality and St. Jude supporter Daisy Fuentes during the fifth annual FedEx/ as outbreaks of animal influenza that make children with acute lymphoblastic check-up. St. Jude Angels & Stars Gala in Miami, Florida. The evening raised $300,000 for St. Jude. Fuentes, the event’s celebrity chair, was joined by legendary might cause pandemics, or worldwide leukemia (ALL) susceptible to the toxic 4. You will not be able to remember ® ® singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner José Feliciano, pop singer and multi-platinum recording artist Cristian Castro, Grammy Award epidemics, in humans. side effects caused by chemotherapy anything that involves something ® winning Cuban singer and composer Albita, No. 1 Billboard ranked pop-tropical singer Fanny Lu and Jade Alexander of CBS4 News in Miami. medications. The researchers showed that other than your child’s blood counts Predicting decay these variations occur in specific genes and appointments. Leukemic cells’ safe haven the April 2007 issue of The Journal of international groups that meet online,” St. Jude investigators say they have known to influence how drugs work in 5. Frozen dinners taste really good, if The cancer drug asparaginase Clinical Investigation. said Yuri Quintana, PhD, of International found the best way for predicting when the body and how much drug is needed you’re lucky enough to be hungry. fails to help cure some children with Outreach. “The content has been accessed patients will need future surgery to repair to have its intended effect. The findings 6. Insomnia becomes a way of life. No amount of concealer will hide acute lymphoblastic leukemia because Cure4Kids milestone more than 1 million times.” hip joints that have deteriorated because are important because side effects in 7. those dark circles. Consider them a molecules released by certain cells The St. Jude Cure4Kids Web site of pediatric leukemia or lymphoma ALL can be life threatening and interrupt fashion statement. in the bone marrow counteract the effect now has more than 10,000 users from 155 Learning from survivors treatment. delivery of treatment, increasing the 8. Gatorade® may go down one color, of that drug. countries. Established in 2002 as a part Results from the longest follow- The investigators found that if more risk of relapse. New insights gained in but it comes up an entirely different St. Jude researchers showed that of the International Outreach Program, up study ever done of childhood than 30 percent of the head of the bone this study could help individualize ALL color. specific cells in the bone marrow create the Cure4Kids Web site brings the latest acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) fitting into the hip socket is deteriorated, chemotherapy according to a patient’s 9. “Waiting” is an art form in which you a protective niche for leukemic cells by medical knowledge on the treatment of survivors show the importance of long- it is at high risk of collapsing and inherited tendencies to develop toxic will become an expert. releasing large amounts of asparagine, pediatric catastrophic diseases to health term monitoring of former patients to requiring reconstructive surgery within reactions to specific drugs. 10. Your child will become mature far an amino acid that nearby leukemic cells care providers in countries with limited identify complications they are at risk two years. Intensive use of corticosteroid Mary Relling, PharmD, chair of beyond her years, often wiser than must have to survive but do not make resources. for developing later in life and to modify drugs has been implicated in development Pharmaceutical Sciences, is senior author you will ever be. efficiently. This extra supply of asparagine The site offers a digital library, on- current treatments to reduce those risks. of bone deterioration. However, these of a report on this work published in the Catherine Greenslade is the mother of Emily helps leukemic cells survive treatment demand seminars with slides and audio in A report on this work appeared drugs have helped raise survival rates May 15, 2007, issue of Blood. Miller Land, a survivor of the bone cancer with the drug asparaginase. several languages, and other resources. in Journal of the American Medical of children with pediatric leukemia and osteosarcoma. To read Emily’s story, visit Dario Campana, MD, PhD, of “Cure4Kids now contains 900 Association (JAMA) in March of 2007.