Hands-on cancer biology workshop for journalists

Journalists: Make your own major medical breakthrough in cancer biology at a hands-on workshop in New York City

NEW YORK -- Who wants to be a cancer researcher?

Journalists are invited to slip into the shoes of medical scientists to detect their very own COX-2 inhibitors and to find computational clues in the war against cancer at a daylong workshop, "Cancer Biology: From Research to Recovery."

The seventh annual Josephine L. Hopkins Foundation science workshop for journalists will be held June 21 at the Weill Education Center, Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. There is no charge to attend the workshop.

The day will begin with short lectures in cancer biology, medicine, pharmacology and computational genomics. In the afternoon, journalists will get hands-on experience in the wet laboratories and the computer laboratories of the medical school. For example, journalists will be able to detect inhibitors to the COX-2 gene, which is an early-response gene induced by growth factors, cytokines, carcinogens, oncogenes and tumor promoters. Scientists suggest that COX-2 is a target for preventing and possibly treating colorectal cancer, since it is overexpressed in approximately 85 percent of colorectal cancers and in 50 percent of premalignant cysts.

Journalists also will hear the latest research findings on anti-angiogenesis, one of the Achilles' heels of tumor growth. Angiogenesis is the growth of blood vessels, and treatments are being developed to starve tumors by preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed them.

To see the full program or to register online, go to: http://www.nysep.cornell.edu/hopkins .

Another topic of interest to journalists will be covered on Wednesday, June 20. The Gene Media Forum will sponsor a discussion at the New York Academy of Sciences on intellectual property rights and genetically modified organisms. For more information, contact Akiko Takano at Gene Media Forum, phone 212-826-0261, or e-mail atakano@genemedia .org or [email protected] .

On June 22, also in the Weill Education Center, journalists are invited to attend "Interfacing Nanoscale Technology With Biological Systems," a free workshop sponsored by the Cornell Nanobiotechnology Center. For information on this workshop, contact Lorraine Capogrossi at 607- 254-5393, or [email protected] .