Covid-19 and Long Covid Seminar Teaser

 COVID-19 AND LONG COVID: RAPIDLY DEVELOPING THERAPIES FOR A NEW DISEASE

By Art Wallace, MD, PhD

November 30th, 2022 

"Bad Blood: Battling Cancer in the U.S. and Vietnam" - An Interview with Michelle Hermiston, Ph.D. M.D. of UCSF

By Shoshana Harlem (MSS Intern, Terra Linda High School) 

Dr. Michelle Hermiston,  M.D. Ph.D. is director of the pediatric immunotherapy program at UCSF. She studies blood cancers in children and also works in Vietnam developing infrastructure for pediatric oncology.

  1. What made you interested in doing cancer outreach work in Vietnam? 

I am passionate about curing children with cancer. The cure rates for children with cancer in the United States is approaching 85% due to advances in basic research and clinical trials. However, 80% of children with cancer live in low or middle income countries (LMIC) where outcomes range from 5-40%. 

   2. What infrastructure have you already developed in Vietnam for children with cancer and other blood diseases? 

Our team at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals Oakland and San Francisco have been working with an international team of investigators to improve childhood cancer outcomes. We are using an implementation science approach. So far, we have performed a needs assessment involving all hospitals nationally that care for kids with cancer. Out initial interventions have focused on education, establishing a platform for kids with cancer. Our initial interventions have focused on education, establishing a platform for data collection for quality improvement and eventual clinical studies purposes, and development of uniform treatment protocols. 

   3. What is your role of the director of the pediatric immunotherapy program at UCSF? 

I oversee the development and implementation of our pediatric immunotherapy program. I am the principle investigator for several chimeric antigen receptor t (car-t) cell trials and oversee the care of these patients. 

   4. What are the best parts of your job? 

There is nothing better than curing a child of cancer and giving them a second change at life. No two days are the same. I have the privilege to work with an amazing interprofessional team. The children and their families I care for are inspiring and strong. I get to learn something new every day and be at the forefront of new technologies. I get to take this knowledge to a LMIC setting where I have the opportunity to improve outcomes for even more kids. 

   5. What are the hardest parts of your job? 

The hardest part is when a child's cancer is smarter than our best science. Our work is not done until we can cure every child, no matter what zipcode they happen to randomly be born into. 

Want to learn more about Michelle Hermiston and cancer? Join us on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at Terra Linda High School from 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM in Room 207!

http://marinscienceseminar.com/mssarchive/speakers/hermiston.html

Learn more at http://cancer.ucsf.edu/people/profiles/hermiston_michelle.3489, https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/michelle.hermiston, and https://www.facebook.com/events/2349830128420058/

Interview With Dr.Susan Fisher

by Julia McKeag, Terra Linda HS

Susan Fisher, Ph.D. is the Director of Translational Research in Perinatal Biology and Medicine at UCSF. She is also a Professor in the Departments of Oral Biology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Anatomy and Faculty Director at the Biomolecular Resource Center, UCSF. She is also a member of the UCSF Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BMS).

(Figure 1- refer to end of interview) 

What type of experiments does your lab do?

We study the early stages of human development. One of the approaches we use includes deriving human embryonic stem cell lines.

How did you become interested in stem cell research?

Stem cell research is rooted in developmental biology, which I have been interested in for as long as I can remember. I have always been fascinated by how one cell becomes an entire human being.

How do you think stem cell research will benefit humanity?

Eventually we will understand how to cure human diseases using cell-based therapies.

 

(Figure 2)

Do you think Stem cell research will continue in the future despite its surrounding controversy?

Yes. We have learned so much already using stem cell models. This is a very compelling reason for continuing these lines of investigation.

Are animal stem cells similar in structure and function to human stem cells?

There is not a clear-cut answer to this question. We know from comparative analyses that there are similarities and differences. My personal conclusion is that work in both areas is important.

 

(Figure 3)

What is the most interesting thing you've discovered about stem cells during your research?

We have developed a new method of deriving human embryonic stem cells that appear to be less differentiated than analogous cells derived by standard methods.

What is an average day as the Director of Translational Research in Prenatal Biology and Medicine at UCSF like? What does this position entail?

I am also head of the UCSF Human Embryonic Stem Cell Program. as Director of Translational Research, I lead programs in which we study placental function in normal pregnancy and in pregnancy complications. My job in the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Program focuses on embryonic rather than placental development. Therefore, between both jobs I get to study the cells that form the placenta and the offspring, which it supports. The work is mesmerizing and extremely rewarding! We get to ask questions about processes that very few people get to study.

Figure 1: Human Embryonic Stem Cells- in a recent medical case, Doctors at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital grew stem cells into neural stem cells, then injected them into a stroke patient's brain

See Full Article

Figure 2: Cluster of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Figure 3: Humans, Animals, and Plants have clusters of stem cells that sustain growth and replace damaged tissues.  

Join Dr. Fisher and Marin Science Seminar this Wednesday to learn more!

Wednesday, March 28^th

From 7:30 to 8:30pm

Terra Linda High School

Room 207

Julia McKeag

Interview with Edward Hsiao MD PhD of UCSF

by Julia Moore, Drake HS

How did you become interested in musculoskeletal disorders?

I’ve always been interested in the skeleton. Although we typically think of bones as being solid and unchanging, they undergo a variety of very significant events throughout our lifetime, including growing and repairing after injury. In addition, bones are central to us as a living organism. They provide structure to our bodies, protect soft or vital organs, allow us to move efficiently, and provides bone marrow space for blood formation. We now know that many medically important diseases including osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, and heterotopic bone ossification are all a result of problems affecting normal bone formation.

How are we currently treating different types of musculoskeletal disorders?

Since we don’t  understand how many musculoskeletal disorders develop, our ability to prevent them is pretty limited. Treatments for established disease are also very rudimentary and mostly symptomatic. For example, many inherited diseases of the bone can only be treated by surgery to remove the affected bone. In some cases, we can use metal implants or joint replacement, but these have a relatively short lifespan. Even common diseases, such as osteoporosis or arthritis, have only limited medical treatments.

How do you do your research?

My research is driven by a desire to understand how hormones and genetics control human skeletal growth. Since getting samples of diseased tissues from patients is often difficult, I use a variety of model systems to study skeletal disease. This includes mouse models where I can control hormone signals, and human stem cells created from patients with genetic skeletal diseases (human induced pluripotent stem cells). Together, these models are helping us understand what causes disease and how we can develop new treatments.

What are artificial hormones and how are they advancing research and treatment?

Nature uses hormones as a way to communicate between different parts of the body. One major class of hormone molecules is called G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Since there are over 500 GPCRs in the human genome, figuring out what each individual receptor does is a huge challenge. Our strategy uses a synthetic receptor that only responds to a synthetic drug. This system acts like an artificial hormone – if we add the drug, we can turn the system on; if we take away the drug, we can turn it off. This system allows us to “mimic” a normal hormone system and control that pathway using our drug. This model has proven useful for studying hormone signaling in complex organ systems, including cardiac disease, the brain, and now bone.

What do you think is the future of treatment and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders?

I think that developing robust prevention strategies is important. We also need to develop better combinations of surgical and medical management that have fewer side effects. Much of this can be gained by a better understanding of what happens in normal growth and how those mechanisms go wrong in disease. Finally, I believe that human stem cells provide a valuable new tool in this effort by allowing us to study lab-derived human tissues directly. These stem cells are already providing insights into some rare and dramatic bone diseases. We hope to be able to extend our findings to more common disorders.

Edward Hsiao will be speaking at Terra Linda High School in Room 207 on

Wednesday February 29th at 7:30-8:30pm

Written by: Julia Moore 

What's in Our Genes?: How our genes make us who we are"

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion Way, San Rafael, CA
Room 207

RSVP on FaceBook

with Jane Gitschier, Ph.D. of UCSF's Institute of Human Genetics

What makes us male or female?  What makes us susceptible to disease?  What makes us different from each other? And what makes us different from other animals?  Come learn the answer to these questions.  It's all in our genes! Download the flyer. (September 28, 2011)
 

Dr. Gitschier’s laboratory has broad interests in the field of human genetics, ranging from past work on the molecular genetics of hemophilia, through gene discovery for a variety of inherited disorders. Combined with discovery of genes in mouse mutants and the generation of mouse models for human disease, her research has led to a deeper understanding of heavy metal metabolism and has provided more accurate genetic diagnosis and prognosis for families. Currently her lab is engaged in two unusual projects. The first concerns understanding the genetic basis for absolute pitch perception, a rare cognitive trait in which the pitch of a tone or sound can be named without any reference tone. While she hypothesizes that AP has a large genetic component, exposure to music in early childhood is also key. A second project involves the use of DNA haplotypes to infer ancestry, an endeavor known as genetic genealogy.

 

Jane Gitschier joined the UCSF Faculty in 1985 following post-doctoral work at Genentech. She received her PhD from MIT in Biology in 1981. She was an HHMI Investigator and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her longstanding interest is in human genetics. She lives with her daughter Annie Steinberg and cat Pogo in San Francisco.

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