<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div style="margin:0px"><b><font size="4">7.341 Of Mice and Men: Humanized Mice in Cancer Research</font></b></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><b><font size="4"><br>
</font></b></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">Instructor: Mandeep Kaur (<span style="color:#0433ff"><a href="mailto:mkaur@mit.edu">mkaur@mit.edu</a></span>, 4-5100, laboratory of Jianzhu Chen)</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">Spring 2015. Wednesdays 11 am – 1 pm (Class day and time are flexible.) Room 68-150.</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">Almost everyone knows someone whose life has been affected by cancer. This devastating disease, which</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">still carries a social stigma in certain parts of the world, generally remains unbeatable despite numerous</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">efforts to curb and curtail it since the inception of the War On Cancer in the 1970s. Why is cancer such a</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">difficult disease to treat? Despite all the effort and money poured into developing new cancer treatments,</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">why are there so few cancer therapies that specifically target tumor cells? What is the best system to</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">model the development of a human tumor? How can novel therapies be tested in a system that mimics the</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">human body by modeling the interaction between human tumor cells and a human immune system, which</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">plays a role in the detection and elimination of tumor cells? Cancer is thought to develop and spread by</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">escaping surveillance from human immune cells, which would otherwise eliminate it. How can new</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">treatment modalities, especially immune-based therapies that harness the natural ability of immune cells</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">to kill target cells, be developed to treat cancer? These and other questions will be addressed in this</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">course. We will explore the concepts of mouse models for human cancer, humanized cancer mice and</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">cancer immunotherapy by reading recent and classic research articles. Humanized mice, like Mouse Man</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">from the comic world, are essentially mice on the outside and human in the inside because of the presence</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">of an intact and functional human immune system after engraftment with human stem cells. In humanized</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">cancer mice the development of a human tumor occurs alongside a normal human immune system. We</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">will focus on analyzing and critiquing research papers describing the development of human cancer</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">models using humanized mice, thus hopefully mirroring the situation in patients. A review of the</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">literature and a dissection of experimental designs will serve as a framework to guide discussions about</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">the strengths and weaknesses of humanized mice (also referred to as humice) in cancer research and their</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">unique position as a platform for the testing of new therapies prior to use in the clinic. The course will end</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">with the exploration of a tantalizing new concept: the development of “personalized mice” or mouse</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">“avatars” for individual cancer patients to test drug toxicities prior to dosing the patient as an effort to</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">improve therapeutic efficacy and minimize undesired side effects. Many believe that immunotherapy</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">represents the future of cancer therapy and humanized mice are a recent addition to the cancer biologist’s</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">tool-kit for modeling human cancer. This course will act as an introduction to the latest developments in</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">the fields of cancer biology and immunotherapy. We will use the humice cancer field as a vehicle to</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">fulfill the primary objective of this course -- the art and science of reading, analyzing and critiquing</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">research articles. We will also have the opportunity to attend one or more seminars by experts in the field</font></div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font size="4">and visit a research laboratory actively involved in the generation of cancer humice.</font></div>
<div><br>
<div>Begin forwarded message:</div>
<br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="margin-top:0px; margin-right:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px">
<br>
</div>
<br>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div><br>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks for your help.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div>Mandeep</div>
<div><br>
</div>
--------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<div>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica; font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; letter-spacing:normal; line-height:normal; orphans:2; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; widows:2; word-spacing:0px; word-wrap:break-word">
<div style="font-family:Helvetica; font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; letter-spacing:normal; line-height:normal; orphans:2; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; widows:2; word-spacing:0px; word-wrap:break-word">
<div style="font-family:Helvetica; font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; letter-spacing:normal; line-height:normal; orphans:2; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; widows:2; word-spacing:0px; word-wrap:break-word">
<div>Mandeep Kaur, Ph.D.</div>
<div>Postdoctoral Associate</div>
<div>Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research</div>
<div>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</div>
<div><a href="mailto:mkaur@mit.edu">mkaur@mit.edu</a> || <span style="">(617)-324-5100</span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
<br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<div><span class="x_Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate; border-spacing:0px">
<div>Joyce Roberge<br>
Undergraduate Program<br>
Biology Education Office 68-120<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
31 Ames Street<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
617-253-4718<br>
fax: 617-258-9329<br>
email: <a href="mailto:roberge@mit.edu">roberge@mit.edu</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</span><br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br>
</div>
</body>
</html>