An important need in cancer chemotherapy is a highly predictive in vitro chemosensitivity assay. a major impediment to the development of such a test has been the lack of a suitable system for culturing human tumors in vitro so that they represent tumors in the in vivo state. to overcome this… More

Due to an incomplete understanding of the disease, the prognosis of colon cancer, a high-incidence cancer in western countries, has not improved significantly. most of the studies in the molecular biology of colon cancer have focused on the study of a limited set of approximately 25-40genes, termed… More

New approaches are necessary to improve chemotherapy of solid tumors. for this purpose, anticancer, inc. has taken advantage of the cancer-specific metabolic defect of methionine dependence, which causes many types of cancer cells to reversibly arrest late in the s/g2 phase of the cell cycle in… More

There is an important need in the study of toxicology of topically-applied and environmental agents for an in vitro system to study their toxic effects on skin. the in vitro systems have the benefit of allowing study of a large variety of substances on an individual specimen. an in vitro system… More

Metastatic rates from subcutaneous xenografts in nude mice have been low possibly due to site of implantation. the approach is to use orthotopic onplanation of intact tissue specimens rather than cultured cell lines or dissociated tissue specimens. results have indicated a high take rate (success in… More

We have recently developed in nude mice orthopedic metastasizing onplant models for colon, bladder, lung, head and neck, prostate, stomach, ovarian, pancreas and breast cancers. we will utilize severe combined immunodeficient (scid) mice to develop subsequend models for the development of… More

A number of monoclonal antibodies (mabs) specific for tumor-associated antigens have been analyzed for immunolocalization and/or tumor-growth inhibition in athymic mice bearing subcutaneously transplanted human xenografts derived from tumor cell lines. although the subcutaneous-transplant nude-mouse… More

Taxol is a promising new cancer agent. We will determine whether phosphonium-ion conjugates of taxol would be more effective in a patient-like animal model. It has recently been demonstrated that taxol inhibits the metastatic spread of a PC-3 human prostate tumor cell subline in a SCID (severe… More

We are developing a new tumor selective treatment termed antimethionine chemotherapy. Many tumor types have been shown to exhibit an absolute requirement for methionine in vitro in order to proliferate. Normal cells and tissues can utilize homocysteine in place of methionine in order to proliferate.… More

There is a need to stimulate hair growth for various conditions of alopecia. it is asserted that to achieve hair growth stimulation, biologically active compounds must be delivered inside hair follicle cells, and that the optimal way to identify active compounds and methods of their delivery is to… More

This application addresses the need for selective non-toxic for acne. Excessive 5alpha-reductase activity is found in acne vulgaris as well as androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness). Numerous side effects occur from current treatments of these diseases both of which originate in the… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a need for clinically relevant animal models of tumor angiogenesis and blood flow, two critical targets for current drug evaluation and development. Most models of angiogenesis and blood flow are either based on subcutaneous transplantation of tumors or… More

Estimates of the hip joint centers (HJC) are usually based on predictions from anatomical landmarks and anthropometrical measures such as pelvic breadth. There is concern regarding the relevance of this approach in patients characterized by obesity or pelvic deformity. Recent investigations have… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequorea victoria has been developed into a highly versatile reporter gene. Another family of fluorescent proteins, including Discosoma Red (DsRed), has been cloned from corals (4). This was followed by Anemonia asRed (5)… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Numerous studies have demonstrated that homocysteine (HCY) is a major risk factor in heart disease and stroke. Recent studies have shown that lowering HCY levels with large doses of folate have reduced the incidence of cardiovascular disease. However, in… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ready availability of pluripotent adult stem cells would have many important therapeutic applications. Our recent results suggest that the hair follicle is a promising source for such stem cells. Our recent discovery that the neural stem cell marker, nestin… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a need for clinically-relevant imageable animal models of tumor blood flow, intravascular cancer-cell trafficking and extravasation, critical targets for current drug evaluation and development. Most models of tumor cell trafficking and blood flow are… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase II application will further develop dual-color imageable tumor-host-interaction nude mouse models, developed in the Phase I application, to be used in Phase III to discover and evaluate new effective agents for stromal therapy, including angiogenesis.… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The facile availability of pluripotent adult stem cells would have many important therapeutic applications. Our recent results suggest that the hair follicle is a promising source for such stem cells. Our discovery that the neural stem cell marker nestin is… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this application is to develop imageable tumor-targeting bacteria that can cure tumors without progressive infection of the host. Previous experiments employed anaerobic microorganisms for cancer therapy but used a markedly different approach.… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this application is to develop imageable tumor-targeting bacteria that can cure tumors without progressive infection of the host. Previous experiments by others employed anaerobic microorganisms for cancer t herapy. Target specificity appeared largely… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are developing a new approach to image tumors by selectively targeting the tumors in vivo with a telomerase-specific replication-competent adenovirus expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) (OBP-401). OBP-401 cont ains a replication cassette in which the… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We have developed an effective bacterial cancer therapy strategy by targeting viable tumor tissue by using Salmonella typhimurium auxotrophs that we have generated which grow in viable as well as necrotic areas of tumor s. However, the auxotrophy severely… More