Hosts

Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Cleveland Clinic/Brain Tumor Institute-Center for Translational Therapeutics
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Ohio State University
Penn State University
Stanford University Medical Center
UCLA Medical Center, David Gaffen School of Medicine
UCLA School of Medicine  
University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation 
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
University of Toronto

Institution Name :   UCLA Medical Center, David Gaffen School of Medicine.
Physician :    Antonio A.F. De Salles, M.D., Ph.D. 
Address:    200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Suite 504, Los Angeles, California   90095 
E-mail: adesalles@mednet.ucla.edu 
Phone:   310-794-1221 

Research Interest/Projects:
The Stereotactic Section at the  Division of Neurosurgery, UCLA we carry research in several areas of brain tumor treatment. Effects of radiation in the blood brain barrier, radisensitizers, radioprotectants, stereotactic radiosurgery technique improvement for brain and spine with frameless stereotactic approach. We have trials and oucome research on the treatment of various brain tumor histologies with Radiosurgery.

Institution :        UCLA School of Medicine 
Physician :    Linda M. Liau, MD, PhD 
Address:    10833 Le Conte Avenue, CHS 74-145, Los Angeles, CA  90095
E-mail: LLiau@mednet.ucla.edu
Phone:   310-267-2621

Research Categories: Cell/Tumor Biology, Delivery Methods, Experimental therapeutics, Immunology, Preclinical model, Stem Cells, Tumor Genetic

Institution :        Cedars Sinai Medical Center 
Physician :    John Yu, MD 
Address:    8631 West Third St. #800E, Los Angeles, CA  90048
E-mail: yuj@cshs.org 
Phone:   310-423-0845 

Research Categories: Experimental therapeutics, Immunology, Preclinical models, Stem Cells

Research Interest/Projects:
Neural Stem Cells to treat Cancer and Neurodegenerative Disease

Dr. John Yu's NIH funded laboratory at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is focused on novel cellular therapies for brain tumors and other neurological disorders using neural stem cells. Stem cells appear to be integral in the formation of brain tumors and research in the lab has demonstrated that neural stem cells may be used in the treatment of neurological disorders. The lab has made contributions in the field of cancer stem cells in the cause of brain tumors. Recent observations of the laboratory have demonstrated that these cancer stem cells are chemoresistant and may be the major reason for the recurrence of these deadly tumors. The lab has a major emphasis in the development of neural stem cells from bone marrow to treat brain tumors and neurodegenerative disorders. The goal is to dovetail this technology with ongoing dendritic cell vaccination trials to deliver a one-two punch. First, a systemic immune response will be generated in the periphery with dendritic cell vaccinations. Then, bone marrow derived neural stem cells expressing IL-23 will be delivered to the brain tumor to draw in memory T cells to the tumor.

Neural stem cells have the ability to track tumor cells and areas of neurodegeneration. This property will be exploited to use neural stem cells as delivery vehicles for tumoricidal or neuroprotective agents. The lab is collaborating to use a technology called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer to make embryonic stem cells using a normal oocyte with a transplanted nucleus from a donor who has ALS to study the cause of this disease. The goal is to make neurons from patients with ALS so that new therapies can be tested on these cells. The laboratory is actively developing a clinical protocol using neural stem cells derived from bone marrow to treat patients with brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and ALS. We are also collaborating with Dr. Michal Schwartz to develop clinical protocols involving vaccination and neural stem cell therapies for spinal cord injury, ALS, and stroke.

Neurosurgical fellows will have the opportunity to participate and write up clinical trials or basic research projects. They will be intimately involved in the development of their research project. Applications for further funding will be encouraged.

Institution:  Cleveland Clinic/Brain Tumor Institute-Center for Translational Therapeutics

Physician: Michael Vogelbaum, MD, PhD, FACS
Address: 9500 Euclid Ave – R20, Cleveland, OH 44195
E-mail: vogelbm@neus.ccf.org 
Phone: 216-444-8564

Research Categories: Cell/tumor biology, delivery methods, experimental therapeutics, invasion, preclinical models
 
Research Interest/Projects:

We have a laboratory focused on aggressive preclinical testing of the most promising new anti-glioma agents.  We have resources in place to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of these compounds in the laboratory as well as in animal models of brain tumor.  We also investigate the optimal route of delivery of these drugs in order to safely and, as quickly as possible, move them into clinical trials for the benefit of patients.  We have collaborative research projects ongoing with a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as with local, R01 funded investigators.  What these projects have in common is that they involve novel drugs that are close to or in clinical trial and which are rationally designed to be effective against malignant gliomas given the molecular and genetic makeup of these tumors.  These drugs are targeted against molecules such as EGFR, mTOR/Akt, Jak/STAT3 and Raf-1 kinase (projects have been in collaboration with Genentech, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Ariad, others).   Our first translational clinical trial is with Tarceva/OSI-774, a selective EGFR kinase inhibitor small molecule drug.  Other projects are focused on developing methods to improve immune response to gliomas (in collaboration with James Finke, Ph.D.), development of tumor specific modified siRNA molecules (in collaboration with Joao Marquez, Ph.D.) understanding the roles of STAT3 and NFkB in regulating glioma cell migration (R01 funding, in collaboration with Jahar Haque, Ph.D.), examination of the role of a newly identified phosphatase in regulating invasion of glioma cells (R01 funding, in collaboration with Susann Brady-Kalnay, Ph.D.) and exploring the use of a new drug which may sensitize gliomas to temozolomide (R21 funding, in collaboration with Stanton Gerson M.D.).

Institution:  MD Anderson Cancer Center 
Physician:   Oliver Bögler, PhD

Address: Unit BSRB 1004, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX  77030
E-mail: obogler@mdanderson.org
Phone: 713-834-6216

Research Categories: Cell/Tumor biology, Experimental therapeutics, Preclinical models, Proteomics

Research Interest/Projects: 

Signaling in the EGFR pathway - Insufficient signal attenuation plays a significant role in the overactivity of tyrosine kinases involved in the formation of gliomas. We are interested in a pair of adaptor proteins involved in receptor tyrosine kinase internalization, SETA/CIN85 and Alix. SETA is an SH3 domain adapter molecule whose expression is associated with the transformed state in astrocytes (3), and binds to Alix, itself implicated in atypical apoptosis (4). SETA binds to Cbl proteins, and promotes the internalization of active receptors. Interestingly, low levels of signaling, such as that of the oncogenic EGFR vIII, allows receptors to escape downregulation by Cbl-SETA (6). Alix negatively regulates the Cbl-SETA complex, protecting EGFR from downregulation (7). Src, in turn negatively regulates Alix/AIP1 by phosphorylation (5). We are pursuing this line of investigation to identify whether these mechanisms can be harnessed to downregulate oncogenic tyrosine kinase signaling in brain tumors.

Novel Platinum Compounds and Proteomics - We are interested in a new generation of polynuclear platinum compounds, which show greater efficacy and lower toxicity than cisplatin in glioma (1). Ongoing efforts focus on investigating the mechanism of drug action, developing strategies for combining them with other therapies to improve efficacy and develop them preclinically. In addition we are using proteomics (2) to generate profiles capable of predicting response. Planned acquisition of additional proteomics capabilities will allow us to expand these efforts to other areas of research, and collaborations with laboratories investigating cancer stem cells and biomarkers of response in glioma.

1. Billecke, C., S. Finniss, L. Tahash, C. Miller, T. Mikkelsen, N. P. Farrell, and O. Bogler. 2006. Polynuclear platinum anticancer drugs are more potent than cisplatin and induce cell cycle arrest in glioma. Neuro-Oncol. 8:215-226.
2. Billecke, C., I. Malik, A. Movsisyan, S. Sulghani, A. Sharif, T. Mikkelsen, N. P. Farrell, and O. Bogler. 2006. Analysis of Glioma Cell Platinum Response by Metacomparison of Two-dimensional Chromatographic Proteome Profiles. Mol Cell Proteomics 5:35-42.
3. Bogler, O., F. B. Furnari, A. Kindler-Roehrborn, V. W. Sykes, R. Yung, H.-J. S. Huang, and W. K. Cavenee. 2000. SETA: a novel SH3 domain-containing adapter molecule associated with malignancy in astrocytes. Neuro-Oncology 2:6-15.
4. Chen, B., S. C. Borinstein, J. Gillis, V. W. Sykes, and O. Bogler. 2000. The glioma associated protein SETA interacts with AIP1/Alix and ALG-2 and modulates apoptosis in astrocytes. J.Biol.Chem. 275:19275-19281.
5. Schmidt, M. H., I. Dikic, and O. Bogler. 2004. Src phosphorylation of Alix/AIP1 modulates its interaction with binding partners and antagonizes its activities. J. Biol. Chem. 280:3414-25.
6. Schmidt, M. H. H., F. B. Furnari, W. K. Cavenee, and O. Bogler. 2003. Epidermal growth factor receptor signaling intensity determines intracellular protein interactions, ubiquitination, and internalization. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.U.S.A 100:6505.
7. Schmidt, M. H. H., D. Hoeller, J. Yu, F. B. Furnari, W. K. Cavenee, I. Dikic, and O. Bogler. 2004. Alix/AIP1 antagonizes EGFR downregulation by the Cbl-SETA/CIN85 complex. Mol. Cell Biol. 24:8981-8993.

Institution:  Ohio State University

Physician: E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD
Address:Department of Neurosurgery,  Columbus, OH  43065
E-mail: EA.Chiocca@osumc.edu 
Phone: 614-293-9312

Research Categories: Angiogenesis, Cell/tumor biology, delivery methods, experimental therapeutics, invasion, preclinical models, tumor genetics, gene/viral therapy

Institution :       Penn State University 
Physician :   Jonas M. Sheehan, MD
Address:    500 University Drive – Department of Neurosurgery, Hershey, PA 17033
E-mail: jsheehan@psu.edu 
Phone:   717-531-8807

Research Categories: Cell/Tumor biology, Delivery Methods, Experimental therapeutics, Invasion, Outcome Studies, Pediatric tumors, Preclinical models, Quality of Life, Radiation therapy, Tumor Genetics

Research Interest/Projects: Our current research efforts can be summarized as (i) development of nanovesicles and nanoparticles targeted to gliomas and delivery mechanisms for such particles, (ii) investigating the role of iron metabolism in brain tumors and the effects of particular genotypes of iron regulation/metabolism on the responses of cells to intervention (iii) prospective collection of tissue, intervention, outcomes and quality of life data for all patients with brain tumors in order to best determine predictors of quality of life and survival, and (iv) clinical impact of all interventions for brain tumors on quality of life and neurocognition.

Our basic and translational science efforts have progressed quickly. We have tested and validated our nanovesicle/nanoparticle approaches through animal models. We have a cell culture model of the blood-brain-barrier which allows us to examine the efficacy of transcytosis of nanovesicles and nanoparticles and modify them if necessary. In addition, we are continuing to explore alternative “payloads” to the targeted particles through our collaboration within the university and in industry. We are modifying the delivery system and schedule to maximize the additional benefits of siRNA use as well.

We have quantified abnormalities in iron metabolism and storage in tumor cells and are currently testing interventions to offset the treatment-protective effects of these abnormalities. Specific genotypes contributing to these irregularities are being evaluated from a prospective and retrospective clinical outcome standpoint.

Furthermore, our findings in the lab can be easily translated to research on patient outcomes through our standardized database which includes baseline clinical and neurocognitive variables before surgery, tissue and DNA collected during the operation, and then patients are followed prospectively over time for neurocognitive, functional, quality of life, and survival. For example, we are currently completing analysis of the effect of a genotype discovered in the lab on patients’ functional outcomes and length of survival. We are leaders in QOL and neurocognition research in brain tumors, and have a number of investigations of interventions focused on improving neurocognition and QOL as primary endpoints. Finally, we have an active industry-sponsored clinical trials portfolio in neuro-oncology and radiosurgery in addition to a busy clinical caseload of CNS tumors.

Institution:     Stanford University Medical Center
Physician:   Stephen L. Skirboll, MD
Address:   Department of Neurosurgery,300 Pasteur Drive, R200, Standford, CA  94305
E-mail: skirboll@stanford.edu 
Phone:  650-852-3450

Research Categories: Cell/tumor biology, stem cells, Cancer stem cells

Research Interest/Projects: My laboratory is seeking a visiting neurosurgeon to be part of our ongoing efforts to identify and characterize cancer stem cells (CSCs) in human malignant gliomas (MGs) and other brain tumors.  We believe that CSCs are the only subpopulation of cells within a cancer that have the capacity to drive the formation and maintenance of a tumor.  CSCs have been demonstrated in human leukemia and breast cancer by identifying cell surface markers that distinguish CSCs from cancer cells with more limited proliferative potential. Preliminary evidence has shown CSCs may also be present in MGs based on the expression of the cell surface marker CD133.  However, our work and of others have not corroborated this, and we firmly believe the identity of CSCs in MGs is currently unknown. Because there are a relatively large number of cell surface markers that could possibly identify CSC in MGs, it is critical that a powerful screening approach be developed to accurately identify one or several candidate markers before proceeding with confirmatory testing using the time-consuming and costly in vivo mouse xenograft assays. Currently there is no such assay or approach that can screen hundreds of cell surface markers on living tumor cells to identify CSC subpopulations within MGs. 

We have developed such an approach that combines an antibody-cell microarray with a soft agar assay which together can screen nearly 500 cell surface markers to identify those that enrich for growth of tumor colonies in vitro. We call this novel assay, the Colony-Forming Antibody Cell Array (CFACA), and the visiting neurosurgeon will use this to study both MG surgical specimens and cell lines. The cell surface markers which enrich for colony formation on the CFACA will then be used by the visiting neurosurgeon to prospectively sort (i.e. FACS) MGs for the desired subpopulations and test for: 1) enrichment in the colony forming efficiency using the traditional anchorage-independent soft agar assay, 2) enrichment in the formation of new tumors after intracerebral implantation into immunodeficient mice and 3) the demonstration of self-renewal and exact recapitulation of the original tumor with FACS of the malignant gliomas that form in the mouse and then serially implanting those sorted tumor cells to assess for tumor reformation. This will validate the CFACA as a powerful assay to screen for the identification of CSCs in MGs.  The identification of CSCs in MGs will provide insights into glioma pathogenesis and establish a previously unidentified cellular target(s) for more effective MG diagnostics and therapies.

The visiting neurosurgeon will also have the opportunity to apply this novel approach to the study of non-neoplastic human brain tissue to attempt to identify candidate normal stem cells in human tissues.  Moreover, there are a number of other modifications that can be done with this approach such as, first sorting the tumor for particular marker and than assessing the expression profile of that particular cell population, and profiling two separate populations on the same array using different fluorescent dyes.  Furthermore, he or she will attempt to show differential expression of undifferentiated versus differentiated tumor cells which has relevance to better identifying unique markers of cancer stem cells in MGs and other brain tumors.

Institution Name: University of Alabama at Birmingham

UAB is one of the 4 Brain Tumor SPORE sites and is engaged in and funded for basic science, translational and clinical research in a broad array of topics. We would be glad to serve as a SPONSOR for a Section on Tumors/BrainLAB International Research Fellow who would select to work under any of the following Investigators:

Physicians:

• James M. Markert, M.D. - basic science, translational or clinical research in application of recombinant HSV to brain tumor therapy.
• L. Burt Nabors, M.D. - basic science, translational or clinical research in glioma biology, glioma chemotherapeutics.
• Candece L. Gladson, M.D. - basic science or translational research in anti-angiogenesis and anti-invasion targeting.
• John Fiveash, M.D. - basic science, translational and clinical research with anti-death receptor antibody and radiotherapy.
• Dale J. Benos, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research with anti-ion channel therapeutics
• Etty N. Beneveniste, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research with NF-kB and STAT3 signaling therapeutics
• Donald J. Buchsbaum, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research using adenovirus and herpes virus vectors encoding cytosine deaminase for molecular chemotherapy-radiotherapy
• G. Yancey Gillespie, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research with anti-bioenergetics therapeutics.
• Martin Johnson, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research on pharmacogenomics for malignant glioma therapy
• Harald W. Sontheimer, Ph.D. - basic science and translational research on use of cystine-glutamate transporter and ion channel inhibitors

Please contact Dr. Gillespie or Dr. Markert for further information on the above listed physicians.

G. Yancey Gillespie, Ph.D.

Professor of Surgery, Microbiology and Cell Biology Director, Brain Tumor SPORE Division of Neurosurgery University of Alabama at Birmingham Room 1052 Tinsley Harrison Tower 1900 University Boulevard Birmingham, AL 35294-0006

voice: (205) 975-0438 fax: (205) 975-7667
cell: (205) 862-0557 UAB Pager: 5471 (205-934-3411)

James M. Markert, M.D., MPH
Professor and Chair, Co-Director - Brain Tumor SPORE, Division of Neurosurgery
1060 Faculty Office Tower, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 520 S. 20th Avenue
Birmingham, AL 35294-3410
voice: (205) 975-6985 fax: (205) 975-3203
email: jmarkert@uabmc.edu

Institution: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Physician: Seiji Kondo, MD, PhD
Address: 1515 Holcombe Blvd. – Department of Neurosurgery - Unit BSRB 1004. Houston, TX 77030-4009
E-mail: seikondo@mdanderson.org
Phone:   713-834-6257

Research Categories: Cell/Tumor biology, Delivery Methods, Expermental therapeutics, Invasion, Preclinical models, Radiation therapy, Stem Cells

Institution/Organization Name :   University of Toronto
Toronto Western Hospital for Clinical-Translational ResearchArthur & Sonia Labatts
Brain Tumor Center: Hospital for Sick Children's Research
Inst. for Laboratory based research in molecular neurooncology
Physician : Abhijit Guha 
Address:  4W-446, Western Hosp, 399 Bathurst St  Toronto, Ontario  Canada M5T-2S8
E-mail: Abhijit.Guha@uhn.on.ca 
Phone: 416-603-5740 

Research Categories: Angiogenesis, Cell/Tumor biology, Experimental therapeutics, Invasion, Pathology, Preclinical models.  

Research Interest:

• Clinical-Translational Research: To be undertaken at the Toronto Western Hospital as part of our current neurooncology fellowship program, with involvement in surgically based neurooncology trials. The fellow would be part of a team comprised of several of my neurosurgical colleagues, clinical nurses, medical and radiation neurooncologists. The fellow would be expected to learn about designing and conduction clinical trials, running a tumor bank, pathological-molecular correlation studies, with some exposure to use of pre-clinical models.

• Molecular Neurooncology Research: To be undertaken at Dr. Guha’s lab at the brain tumor center at Hospital for Sick Children’s Research Inst. The fellow would be part of my 11 person lab and also interact with other members of the tumor center, comprised of five other faculty members and their staff.
  
• Overall theme of Guha lab: Molecular Regulators of Malignant Gliomas and Peripheral Nerve Tumors: Aberrant Signal Transduction Pathways; Angiogenesis and Microenvironment; Transgenic Mouse Models

Research Projects:

• EGFR and mutant EGFR signalling pathways in astrocytomas: Proteomic based project to study the interactions, internalization, turnover and alterations in the proteome due to mutant EGF Receptors prevalent in malignant gliomas.

• Transgenic modelling of human astrocytomas: Transgenic mouse glioma models to study relevant genetic interactions, glioma development, angiogenesis, drug response and discover novel glioma genes.

• Angiogenesis and Glioma Microenvironment: Using human physiological MR guided samples from center and periphery of gliomas, isolating tumor and endothelial cells, to determine the influence of the microenvironment on the molecular and hence the pathological profile of GBMs
  
  
• Peripheral Nerve Tumor Projects: Human peripheral nerve tumor samples are used to decipher their varying biological behavior at a molecular level. Second, xenograft models of malignant peripheral nerve tumors are used to determine efficacy of biological therapies, such as those against the Ras signaling pathway. Last, to use proteomic based approaches to determine what are additional neurofibromin interacting proteins, hence additional functions of relevance which when lost contribute to the large number of clinical manifestations found in NF1.

Institution/Organization Name :  University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation 
Physician : Masato Nakafuku, MD, PhD and Ronald E. Warnick, MD
Address:  Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Research Foundation, 231 Albert Sabin Way – Mail Location 0515, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0515
E-mail: masato.nakafuku@cchmc.org 
Phone:513-636-9389

Research Categories: Cell/tumor biology, Invasion, Stem Cells, Tumor Genetics

Research Interests/Projects:

Our neurobiology research group (jointly sponsored by the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation) seeks a neurosurgery fellow who is interested in research on brain tumor stem cells including:

1. Profiling of molecular signatures of brain tumor stem cells isolated from human specimens.
2. Characterization of tumor-initiating cells in the adult brain using animal models.
3. Characterization of molecular events that underlie malignant transformation of stem/progenitor cells into brain tumors utilizing animal models.

Institution/Organization Name :  Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Physician : Isabelle M. Germano, MD, FACS
Address: Department of Neurosurgery – Box 1136, Mount Sinai Medical Center, One Levy Placy, New York, NY  10029
E-mail: isabelle.germano@mountsinai.org   
Phone:212-241-9638

Research Categories: :  cell/Tumor biology, Delivery Methods, Experimental therapeutics, Outcome Studies, Pathology, Preclinical models, Quality of Life, Radiation therapy, Radiology, Stem Cells

Research Interests/Projects:

The Gene and Brain Tumor Laboratory of the Neurosurgery Department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focuses on translational research for malignant gliomas. We focus on aggressive preclinical testing of the most promising new anti-glioma agents alone and in combination with radiation.  The toxicity and efficacy of these compounds is evaluated in vitro on glioma cell lines and in animal models of brain tumor. We have published on laboratory and clinical trials using gene therapy and are still investigating some of the aspects of this modality. A more recent focus of the laboratory is embryonic stem cells (ESC). These totipotent cells with unlimited proliferative capacity, and, unlike other cell types, can be permanently and precisely genetically modified without the use of viral vectors. Clinical interests include use of image-guidance and non-invasive pre-operative brain-mapping for malignant glioma surgery

Selected publications:

Germano IM, Uzzaman M, Benveniste R, Zaurova M, Keller G. Apoptosis in human glioma cells  produced using embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes expressing tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). J Neurosurgery 105:88-95, 2006

Uzzaman M, Benveniste R, Keller G,Germano IM. Embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes: novel gene therapy vector for brain tumors. Neurosurgical Focus 19(3) E6, 2005

Benveniste R, Keller G, Germano IM. Embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes expressing drug-inducible transgenes: Differentiation and allotransplantation into the mouse brain. J Neurosurgery 103:115-123,2005

Benveniste R. and Germano IM. Correlation of factors predicting intraoperative brain shift with successful resection of malignant brain tumors using image-guided techniques. Surg Neurol 63:542-549, 2005

Kanzawa T, Zhang L, Xiao L, Germano IM, Kondo Y, Kondo S. Arsenic trioxide induces autophagic cell death in malignant glioma cells by up-regulation of mitochondrial cell death protein BNIP3. Oncogene 24: 980-91, 2005.

Kanzawa T, Germano IM, Komata T, ito H, Kondo Y, Kondo S. Role of autophagy in temozolomide-induced cytotoxicity for malignant glioma cells. Cell Death Differ 11(4) 448-457, 2004

Kanzawa T, Bedwell J, Kondo Y, Kondo S, Germano IM. Inhibition of DNA repair sensitizes resistant glioma cells to temozolomide. J Neurosurgery 99:1047-1052, 2003

Germano IM, Fable J, Gultekin H, Silvers A. Adenovirus/herpes simplex-thymidine kinase/ganciclovir complex: preliminary results of a phase I trial in patients with recurrent malignant gliomas. J Neuro-Oncology 65:279-289, 2003

Kanzawa T, Komata T, Kyo S, Germano IM, Kondo Y, Kondo S. Down-regulation of telomerase acitivity in malignant glioma cells by p27k1p1. J Oncol 23:1703-8, 2003

Kanzawa T, Germano IM, Kondo Y,Ito H, Kyo S, Kondo S. Inhibition of telomerase activity in malignant glioma cell lines correlates with their sensitivity to TMZ. Br J Cancer 189:922-929, 2003

Yao K, Komata T, Kondo Y, Kanzawa T, Kondo S, Germano IM. Molecular response of human glioblastoma cells to ionizing radiations: cell cycle arrest, CDKI modulation, and autophagy. J Neurosurgery 98:378-384, 2003

Komata T, Kanzawa T, Takeuchi H, Germano IM, Schreiber M, Kondo Y, Kondo S. Antitumor effect of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (p16INK4A, p18INK4C, p19INK4D, p21WAFI/CIPI and p27KIPI) on malignant glioma cells. British Journal of Cancer 88:1277-80, 2003.

 Benveniste R and Germano IM. Evaluation of factors predicting accurate resection of high-grade gliomas using frameless image-guided stereotactic guidance. Neurosurgical Focus 14:1-4, 2003

Kanzawa T, Kondo Y, Ito I, Kondo S, Germano IM. Induction of autophagic cell death in malignant glioma cells by arsenic trioxide. Cancer Research 63:2103-2108, 2003