Sigma BioBlogs

AACR is over 100 years old, with a membership of 30,000+.  The membership is quite inclusive, with a mixture of people from basic science research, clinical research, and also physicians, patients, survivors, and patient advocates all intent on studying and learning more about how to stop cancer.

We got the chance to meet many of them, and a few answered the question “Where does your bio begin? (You can still enter your video too!).

Communication, collaboration, research and education are all a part of AACR’s mission, with 6 Cancer journals for the thousands of scientist who are members, and also CR magazine, to provide information directly relevant for cancer patients, survivors, and patient advocates.

For AACR 2010, the volcanic ash prevented many European presenters from attending, so AACR shifted and met the need by patching the speakers through via video and teleconference.  Some of the recorded talks are here.

Plus an amazing twitter feed which is still active 4 days post-meeting as bloggers sift through their notes and communicate the information that they gathered during the meeting.

The science has come a long way too.  Many traditional topics were under exploration, such as studies around Ras and p53,  there  were also discussions about newer technologies for  such as microRNAs, using biomarkers for early detection,  nanotechnology, and systems biology.

Some blogs of note:

Sally Church’s blog. This lady knows the cancer community.  I got the chance to have coffee with her and she knew half the researchers walking in and out of the conference hall.

Nature writer Brian Maher has a series of short blogs about the sessions he attended.

Another look at Bert Vogelstein’s talk…

This AACR video details some fascinating statistics on cancer research

At 30, a young, black tobacco farmer entered Johns Hopkins hospital for treatment of cervical cancer. Cells extracted during her biopsy were transferred to another lab where scientists were attempting to grow cells in culture. Until that point, they had been unsuccessful but cells from Henrietta Lacks’ tumor, known to the scientific community today as HeLa cells, did not die, giving rise to the first human immortal cell line.

Normal cells can proliferate a limited number of times before dying, but immortal cell lines such as HeLa, can divide an unlimited number of times in cell culture when conditions for cell survival are maintained. The culprit for unlimited cell division is an active form of the enzyme telomerase which prevents the shortening of telomeres, implicated in aging and cell death.

Though Henrietta died within the year of her biopsy, her cells have shaped the course of science for the past 50 years. HeLa cells were critical to the development of the polio vaccine, sparked the implementation of ethical standards and informed consent, and were used to make the Nobel Prize winning discovery that HPV causes cancer. With over 60,000 scientific papers, HeLa cells are the most published cell line used in research.

A book released today explores the life of the woman behind the immortal cells. Read an excerpt of the book and the interview with the author for Smithsonian Magazine.