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An Evening of Wine—First Flight - August 5, 2004
Join us at The Golf Club at Newcastle for PNRI's first annual fundraising event. Wines from seven of Washington State's finest wineries are paired with delicious appetizers, followed by a live auction of ten wine-themed packages. Featured are Pepper Bridge Winery, Saviah Cellars, Chandler Reach Vineyards, Sheridan Vineyards, Dunham Cellars, Owen Sullivan Winery, and Three Rivers Winery. Proceeds go to benefit diabetes research at PNRI (now PNDRI). $150.00 per person. Make your reservation by contacting Linda Bonomi, Director of Development, 206.726.1200 or donations@pndri.org.
Team PNRI
Be part of our team as we participate in four community events this spring and summer. Walk, run, ride-whatever you do, you'll be helping biomedical research fight disease.
For more information contact Casi Zurawski at 206.726.1200 or laser@pndri.org.
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Promising New Test for Myelodysplasia
The April 6th edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported the development of a promising new test for the early diagnosis of myelodysplasia. The work was conducted by Dr. Donald Malins and colleagues at PNRI (now PNDRI) in collaboration with Dr. Jerry L. Spivak at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is a serious blood disorder that can lead to bone marrow failure and acute myelogenous leukemia. It is diagnosed in about 15,000 to 20,000 people a year and occurs mainly in patients over 60 years of age. It is often difficult to distinguish MDS from readily treatable, nonmalignant forms of bone marrow disease. Hence, the absence of a reliable test to accurately diagnose MDS may preclude appropriate therapy and threaten patient health.
New Cancer Vaccine Promise
Researchers from PNRI, under the leadership of Dr. Karl Erik Hellstrom, announced the development of a promising new cancer vaccine technology. In the April 6th issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the researchers describe a process whereby cells from melanoma, a highly malignant skin cancer, are engineered to express a particular molecule that induces the immune system to attack and kill them. Various forms of cancer survive and flourish because they are able to evade immune detection. The study reported in this publication is part of a program PNRI researchers are conducting to devise new ways to make cancer cells more conspicuous, and thus more vulnerable to immune rejection.
Middle Schoolers Celebrated at PNRI
Eleven middle school students became Scientists for a Day at PNRI on May 7th. All were winners of this year's "Biomedical Breakthroughs" essay and poster contest, sponsored by the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research. The contest is open to students from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. They explore research discoveries that have led to life-altering biomedical breakthroughs, and create a poster or essay on what they have learned. Winners are invited to PNRI with their parents and teachers and are introduced to the tools and approaches scientists use every day. In the lab, students search for islets of Langerhans (the cells that produce insulin), isolate DNA and determine its genotype, as well as view protein in cells using fluorescent microscopy. The day is rounded out with an awards ceremony that celebrates the achievement of the students and their teachers.
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