Coach Huggins in 7th place in the Infiniti Coaches Charity Challenge

Thanks to Mountaineer fans WVU Coach Bob Huggins is in 7th place in the second round of the Infiniti Coaches Charity Challenge. However, Coach Huggins needs your continued daily votes to help him win $100,000 for his Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund at the MBRCC.  Please go to ESPN.COM/INFINITI and vote for Huggins every day.  Voting for Round 2 will end on February 15th at 11:59 AM.   Your votes will help push the Huggins Endowment Fund over the $1 million bar!
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Pulitzer prize-winning book Cancer:  The Emperor of All Maladies, turned into documentary

The Pulitzer prize-winning book Cancer:  The Emperor of All Maladies by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee has been turned into a three-part, six-hour major television event from preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and will be shown on most PBS affiliates on March 30, 31 and April 1st at 9P.  This “biography” of cancer – from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic “War on Cancer” in the last century – comes at a moment of inflection in the history of the disease, when scientific breakthroughs have put a cure within reach.
Dr. Mukherjee, the book’s author, was the 2011 speaker for the MBRCC’s DeLynn Lecture Series.
Here is a link to the film trailer | article

WVU Cancer Center to celebrate 30 year milestone at annual spring gala

Congratulations to MBRCC researcher Lan Guo, PhD

A recent paper by Dr. Guo in Toxicology titled Multi-walled carbon nanotube-induced gene expression in vitro: Concordance with in vivo studies has been posted as an announcement on AltTox.org, a website dedicated to advancing non-animal methods of toxicity testing.  The announcement is in the Journal Watch section of AltTox where only one or two articles that are deemed valuable are posted per month.  Link to the announcement Guo is an associate professor in the WVU School of Public Health Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences and a member of the MBRCC Allen Lung Cancer Program.

WVU athletic teams to host ‘Pink’ events

WVU athletes are holding ‘pink’ events this month to raise breast cancer awareness.  The WVU Wrestling team will host Cradles for Cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7; the WVU Women’s Basketball team will host the Play4Kay game on Saturday, Feb. 21 and the WVU Gymnastics team will host the Wendy M. Roach Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 22.  Team members will be wearing their pink and are encouraging fans to also wear pink.   This link contains details about the teams Feb. ‘pink events,’ how to get free tickets to the women’s basketball game and pink events in October to be hosted by the WVU Women’s Soccer team and the WVU Women’s Volleyball team.

Welcome to Wei Zhang and Xiaoliang Wu in Dr. Patrick Ma's MBRCC lab

Wei Zhang was an engineer for seven years at the East China University of Science & Technology before coming to the United States. Before coming to the MBRCC to be Dr. Ma's lab manager, she worked in his translational research laboratory in the Taussig Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio for four years as a research technician. Her research focus has been on lung cancer and mesothelioma precision therapy and molecular mechanisms of drug resistance.     Xiaoliang Wu is a medical graduate from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) in Guangzhou, China, and also currently a PhD candidate there pursuing translational lung cancer research with a focus on EGFR-mutant lung cancer precision therapy acquired resistance mechanism. He is being supported by the SYSUCC to study under Dr. Patrick Ma's mentorship in his research lab at MBRCC for one year as a visiting research scholar. His mentor in China was previously a PhD graduate from the Case Western Reserve University with Dr. Ma serving as a member in his PhD Thesis Committee.

Microbiome sequencing and analysis workshop planned for March

West Virginia IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence is presenting a workshop on using next generation sequencing for microbiome analysis on March 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Time is available for consultations on individual projects after lunch. For more information and to register, contact Mary Davis at mdavis@hsc.wvu.edu. 

Reception planned to connect researchers with resources

The West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute is hosting its second informational reception to learn more about available services and resources and network with other researchers across campus and in the community.
More details
Questions may also be directed to wvctsi@hsc.wvu.edu via email or phone 304-293-7015.

IRS increases retirement plan contribution limits in 2015

Last year, the Internal Revenue Service announced increases in dollar limitations for retirement plans for the 2015 tax year. Changes include a 403(b) & 457(b) contribution increase to $18,000 from $17,500, an over age 50 catch up contribution increase to $6,000 from $5,500, and a 401(a) compensation limit increase to $265,000 from $260,000. To learn more about the University's offerings for supplemental retirement savings

Association for Women in Science earns Star Chapter Award

The West Virginia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science has earned the Star Chapter Award for the second year in a row. The award encourages chapters to perform specific activities designed to ensure that women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields are able to achieve their full potential.
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Reminder of Major annual cancer meetings  in 2015 –

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
April 18-22

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
May 29-June 2

American Society of Hematology (ASH)
Dec 5-8

Be a part of a state wide survey on cancer family history in West Virginia

We are conducting a research study for women 40-50 years old and English-speaking. It is an online survey study that asks about your thoughts and feelings about breast cancer and ways we can improve our health fair. It takes about 15 minutes to complete. 
You can find the survey here: https://surveymonkey.com/s/WVUFair
WVU IRB approval is on file. Thank you, Kim Kelly, PhD, Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, HSC, PO Box 9510, Morgantown, WV 26506.

Kudos to Lori Acciavatti

Congratulations to Lori Acciavatti, professional technologist in the MBRCC, who has been aptly recognized for ‘Climbing Higher.’ 
To learn more about how Lori goes the extra mile.