In This Issue
Links
-
Visit the Web site
- Career Center
- Calendar of Events
-
Contact us
Purchase the IVBM Program with over 300 abstracts
Postdoctoral Fellows
Sophie Astrof
Thomas Jefferson University
Giachelli/Speer
University of Washington
Guillermo Oliver
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Michael Rogers
Children's Hospital Boston
Faculty
Timothy Hla
Weill Medical College
Jack Lawler
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
More open positions can be found
at our
Career Center
Committees
Join the Web Site Committee
We'd like to see some of our Trainee Members join our Web Site/Technology Committee. If interested, please contact, Dave Milstone, Committee Chair.
NAVBO 2011 Workshops in Vascular Biology
Speakers have been invited and confirmed for both the Vascular Matrix Biology and Bioengineering Workshop (www.navbo.org/event/vmbb)and the Biology of Signaling in the Cardiovascular System (www.navbo.org/event/bscvs)Visit the web sites for full programs!
Vasculata
Plans are well underway for the 2011 presentation of Vasculata under the direction of Dr. Gary Gibbons of Morehouse School of Medicine. Vasculata will be co-sponsored and held at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Kari Alitalo Named 2011 Earl P. Benditt Award Recipient
Kari Alitalo, M.D.,
Ph.D., is the recipient of NAVBO’s 2011 Benditt Award in recognition of
his groundbreaking work on angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. Dr.
Alitalo is currently Academy Professor in the Molecular Cancer Biology
Program at the Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland. His
laboratory discovered several receptor tyrosine kinases, particularly in
endothelial cells. Some of these receptors and their ligands play
important roles in tumor angiogenesis. Dr. Alitalo’s lab cloned and
characterized fibroblast growth factor receptor-4 and the first
endothelial specific receptor tyrosine kinase, Tie1. In collaboration
with Ulf Eriksson, they identified VEGF-B as an endothelial cell growth
factor and determined that VEGFR-1 and NP-1 are its receptors. His lab
also cloned additional VEGF genes and receptors and obtained new insight
into the molecular mechanisms regulating the growth and function of
lymphatic vessels. VEGF-C and VEGF-D stimulate lymphangiogenesis. Their
receptor, VEGFR-3, has been linked to human hereditary lymphedema. VEGF-C
induces the growth of peritumoral lymphatic vessels and increases the
lymphatic metastasis rate in transgenic and tumor-implanted mice.
Conversely, soluble VEGFR-3, which blocks embryonic lymphangiogenesis,
also blocks metastasis and peritumoral lymphangiogenesis. Dr. Alitalo
went on to show that VEGFR-3 also is induced in blood vessels of various
human cancers and seems to contribute to angiogenesis in a subset of
tumors. Some of the molecules he discovered have become targets for the
therapeutic regulation of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, inhibition
of tumor metastasis, and control of tissue edema.
Dr. Alitalo will receive the 2011 Benditt award for his outstanding
basic research and its potential for translation to clinical
applications. He will present his talk, “Lymphangiogenesis in
Development and Human Disease,” at the NAVBO 2011 Workshops in Vascular
Biology on October 16 at the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis on
Cape Cod. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Alitalo!
Klaus Ley, M.D.
Meritorious Awards Committee Chair
Myth: Endothelium
- passive plumbing with poor potential?
Finding: BUSTED
Endothelium was initially thought to be a modulated form of mesenchyme with function limited to establishing the inner lining of blood vessels (“keeping blood where it belongs”), preventing untoward intravascular thrombosis and participating in selective permeability in tissues. Over several decades the realization emerged that endothelium is a “legitimate” differentiated cell type performing many characteristic and essential functions during development and in adults. Strikingly, recent evidence reveals an unexpectedly diverse developmental plasticity and potential of endothelium in both physiologic and pathologic settings; differentiated endothelium can and does form not only cardiac valves and blood but cartilage, bone and perhaps other tissues as well. These insights suggest new opportunities for understanding the roles of vascular cells and tissues during normal and abnormal development and for discovering new vascular contributions to physiologic functions and disease. The results may lead to new vascular-based prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in a variety of genetic and non-genetic diseases, some of which are not currently understood as vascular in origin. Read more . . .
David Milstone
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Contributions to
NAVBO are
Tax Deductible
Please consider making a contribution to NAVBO. We specifically seek support for the IVBM Travel Awards, Vasculata Scholarships and NAVBO Programs. Any amount is welcomed and appreciated. You can make your donation online at:
For US residents, NAVBO is a 501(c)(3) organization; contributions qualify as deductible under IRS regulations.
I need your assistance in a number of ways.
1) I would like to incorporate some of your images in the slide show on our homepage. Please send me your images via email. Members will be acknowledged.
2) Please recommend corporate membership in NAVBO to your suppliers and service providers. Information can be found at www.navbo.org/?CorpMbr
3) Encourage your colleagues to join NAVBO. You can use the "Refer a Colleague" function on our web site - https://navbo.org/members/send.asp or simply send an email - thank you!
4) Register and post to Research Accelerator.
5) Have a great Holiday Season!
Bernadette Englert
Executive Officer
Tech Corner:
Lights! Plate Reader! Action! – Fluorescence-based cell migration
assays
Cell migration is a multistep process that requires the orchestrated signaling and movement of hundreds of molecules that sense extracellular cues, reorganize the cytoskeleton, redistribute internal organelles and recycle lipid compartments in order to achieve motility. Our understanding of the cellular events regulating cell migration can, in part, be attributed to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Stephen Boyden at the Australian National University, who created a novel assay for the analysis of cell migration and cell invasion in 1962. Read more . . .
Timothy Peterson
Mayo Clinic
Holger Gerhardt to
Receive the
2011 Judah Folkman Award
The NAVBO Council,
Meritorious Awards Committee and Scientific Advisory Board are pleased
to recognize Dr. Holger Gerhardt as the 2011 recipient of the Judah
Folkman Award in Vascular Biology. This award recognizes outstanding
contributions from vascular biologists who are at a mid-career level
(within fifteen years of their first faculty appointment). Dr. Gerhardt
is Group Leader in the Vascular Biology Laboratory/Cancer Research UK at
the London Research Institute. He will present the Judah Folkman Award
Lecture, entitled “Angiogenesis – Pieces of the Puzzle” at 10:00 AM on
October 20, 2010, during the NAVBO 2011 Workshops in Vascular Biology in
Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Dr. Gerhardt received his Ph.D. in Pathology from Tübingen University in
Germany in 2000, having previously studied Biology at Tübingen and
Darmstadt. He pursued post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of
Christer Betsholtz in the Department of Medical Biochemistry at Sweden’s
Gothenburg University, assuming his current post at the London Research
Institute in 2004.
Dr. Gerhardt’s laboratory focuses on clarifying the mechanisms by which
patterning of vascular networks are adapted to the functional and
nutritional demands of different organs. His lab has identified cellular
and biochemical pathways that guide growing vascular sprouts along
gradients of growth factors. His findings have led others in his field
to regard him as the “founding father” of the endothelial tip cell,
whose character-ization has revolutionized our under-standing of how blood
vessels sprout in the process of angiogenesis. Through a series of
landmark studies, Dr. Gerhardt has assembled evidence that endothelial
cells are capable of changing their principal function from acting as
stalk to tip cells when vessels sprout. Interestingly, these cells
navigate their surroundings by using filopodia, similar to cells at the
growth cone of an axon in remodeling neural tissue. These insights not
only represented a breakthrough in blood vessel biology, but also have
provided a novel conceptual framework for future design of new
therapeutic agents that target pathologic angiogenesis. Readers may
learn more about Dr. Gerhardt’s research at:
http://london-research-institute.co.uk/research/loc/london/
lifch/gerhardth/?view=LRI&source=
research_portfolio
Dr. Gerhardt has earned other awards in recognition of his achievements,
including the EMBO Young Investigator Program (2007), the Lister
Institute Research Prize (2008), and the Walther-Flemming Medal of the
German Society for Cell Biology (2009). He has been an invited speaker
at numerous European and international conferences, notably the NAVBO
workshop on Vascular Matrix Biology and Bioengineering held at Whistler,
British Columbia in 2009 and the Developmental Vascular Biology Workshop
in 2010.
In the spirit of the Award’s namesake Judah Folkman, Dr. Gerhardt has
almost single-handedly changed our view of an entire field, is a
charming and articulate ambassador of vascular biology, and continues to
challenge concepts with a steady stream of top-notch scientific
publications. Please join NAVBO’s Meritorious Awards Committee and
Scientific Advisory Board in celebrating Dr. Gerhardt’s excellent
accomplishments.
William R. Huckle, Ph.D.
Editor
Welcome our New
Corporate Partners
Advertise in the
NAVBO eNewsletter -
contact
bernadette@navbo.org
New for our Web Site -
Paper Recommendations
Members are invited to recommend papers of interest to the rest of the vascular biology community. We ask that you include a brief comment - why was the paper intriguing to you or why is it controversial, etc. For more information and details, go to www.navbo.org/?recos
Next
newsletter will be issued March 15 - submit items you would like to
have included by
March 10
Recommend Vendors for the Suppliers Directory
Invite your vendors to
take advantage of a free listing in our
Supplies
and
Services Directory. Simply give them a form (click here) and
have them fax or mail it to the NAVBO Office.
NAVBO NOW Feed
Join the NAVBO Now! Feed - get quick up to date information about NAVBO, meetings, NIH funding, etc. Go to www.navbo.org/now
Questions about the web site:
Click here to
Renew your
Membership