299 Background: Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is among the 5 most common cancers in the US.... more 299 Background: Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is among the 5 most common cancers in the US. Despite several clinical trials attempting to determine the best approach to muscle-invasive disease, the optimal treatment modalities and their sequence have not been established. Specifically, the decision to administer neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is currently based solely on clinical parameters, with no validated biomarkers. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are short RNA molecules that have roles in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation by binding to mRNAs. They were shown to have cardinal roles in many cancers, and their potential to serve as biomarkers is extensively studied. Our goal was to study whether miRNAs can serve as predictive biomarkers for response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in urothelial carcinoma. Methods: miRNAs were extracted from paraffin-embedded pre-operative muscle-invasive tumor biopsies of patients diagnosed with urothelial carcinoma, whose pathological surgical s...
Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of ca... more Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of cancer biology, the identification of prognostic factors, and the development of new treatments are increasingly dependent on access to human cancer tissues with linked clinicopathological data. Access to human tumor samples and a large investment in translational research are needed to advance this research. The SMC tissue repositories provide researchers with biological materials, which are essential tools for cancer research. SMC tissue repositories for research aim to collect, document and preserve human biospecimens from patients with cancerous diseases. This is in order to provide the highest quality and well annotated biological biospecimens, used as essential tools to achieve the growing demands of scientific research needs. Such repositories are partners in acceLerating biomedical research and medical product development through clinical resources, in order to apply best options to the patients. Following Institutional Review Board approval and signing an Informed Consent Form, the tumor and tumor-free specimens are coLLected by a designated pathologist at the operating room only when there is a sufficient amount of the tumor, in excess of the routine needs. Blood samples are collected prior to the procedure. Other types of specimens collected include ascites fluid, pleural effusion, tissues for Optimal Cutting Temperature [OCT] and primary culture etc. Demographic, clinical, pathologicaL, and follow-up data are collected in a designated database. SMC has already established several organ or disease-specific tissue repositories within different departments. The foundation of tissue repositories requires the concentrated effort of a multidisciplinary team composed of paramedical, medical and scientific professionals. Research projects using these specimens facilitate the development of 'targeted therapy', accelerate basic research aimed at clarifying molecular mechanisms involved in cancer, and support the development of novel diagnostic tools.
Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots esta... more Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots establishment of independently operating biobanks has occurred virtually simultaneously in large Israeli teaching hospitals. The process of establishing a national biorepository network in Israel has progressed slowly, sustained mainly by a few proponents working together on a personal level. Slow progress has been due to limited funding and the lack of a legal framework specific to biobanking activities. Recently, due to increasing pressure from the scientific community, the government has earmarked funds for a national biorepository network, and the structure is now being established. In forming a network, Israel's biobanks face certain difficulties, particularly lack of support. Additional challenges include harmonization of standard operating procedures, database centralization, and use of a common informed consent form. In this article, we highlight some of the issues faced by Israel's biobank managers in establishing and sustaining a functional biobank network, information that could provide guidance for other small countries with limited resources.
Endothelium-journal of Endothelial Cell Research, 1995
... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biolog... more ... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biology, Oranim-University of Haifa, Tivon 36910, lsrael ... Endothelial cells and fibroblasts contain high affinity binding sites for ECGF on the cell surface (Schreiber et al., 1985). ...
The Arp2/3 complex and its activators, Scar/WAVE and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp), pro... more The Arp2/3 complex and its activators, Scar/WAVE and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp), promote actin polymerization in vitro and have been proposed to influence cell shape and motility in vivo. We demonstrate that the Drosophila Scar homologue, SCAR, localizes to actin-rich structures and is required for normal cell morphology in multiple cell types throughout development. In particular, SCAR function is essential for cytoplasmic organization in the blastoderm, axon development in the central nervous system, egg chamber structure during oogenesis, and adult eye morphology. Highly similar developmental requirements are found for subunits of the Arp2/3 complex. In the blastoderm, SCAR and Arp2/3 mutations result in a reduction in the amount of cortical filamentous actin and the disruption of dynamically regulated actin structures. Remarkably, the single Drosophila WASp homologue, Wasp, is largely dispensable for these numerous Arp2/3-dependent functions, whereas SCAR does not c...
Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of ca... more Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of cancer biology, the identification of prognostic factors, and the development of new treatments are increasingly dependent on access to human cancer tissues with linked clinicopathological data. Access to human tumor samples and a large investment in translational research are needed to advance this research. The SMC tissue repositories provide researchers with biological materials, which are essential tools for cancer research. SMC tissue repositories for research aim to collect, document and preserve human biospecimens from patients with cancerous diseases. This is in order to provide the highest quality and well annotated biological biospecimens, used as essential tools to achieve the growing demands of scientific research needs. Such repositories are partners in acceLerating biomedical research and medical product development through clinical resources, in order to apply best options t...
Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots esta... more Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots establishment of independently operating biobanks has occurred virtually simultaneously in large Israeli teaching hospitals. The process of establishing a national biorepository network in Israel has progressed slowly, sustained mainly by a few proponents working together on a personal level. Slow progress has been due to limited funding and the lack of a legal framework specific to biobanking activities. Recently, due to increasing pressure from the scientific community, the government has earmarked funds for a national biorepository network, and the structure is now being established. In forming a network, Israel's biobanks face certain difficulties, particularly lack of support. Additional challenges include harmonization of standard operating procedures, database centralization, and use of a common informed consent form. In this article, we highlight some of the issues faced by Israel's biobank managers in establishing and sustaining a functional biobank network, information that could provide guidance for other small countries with limited resources.
Prostate cancer is the most common non-dermatologic malignancy in men in the Western world. Recen... more Prostate cancer is the most common non-dermatologic malignancy in men in the Western world. Recently, a frequent chromosomal aberration fusing androgen regulated TMPRSS2 promoter and the ERG gene (TMPRSS2/ERG) was discovered in prostate cancer. Several studies demonstrated cooperation between TMPRSS2/ERG and other defective pathways in cancer progression. However, the unveiling of more specific pathways in which TMPRSS2/ERG takes part, requires further investigation. Using immortalized prostate epithelial cells we were able to show that TMPRSS2/ERG over-expressing cells undergo an Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), manifested by acquisition of mesenchymal morphology and markers as well as migration and invasion capabilities. These findings were corroborated in vivo, where the control cells gave rise to discrete nodules while the TMPRSS2/ERG-expressing cells formed malignant tumors, which expressed EMT markers. To further investigate the general transcription scheme induced ...
... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biolog... more ... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biology, Oranim-University of Haifa, Tivon 36910, lsrael ... Endothelial cells and fibroblasts contain high affinity binding sites for ECGF on the cell surface (Schreiber et al., 1985). ...
Quantification of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has recently become feasible and reliable, with ... more Quantification of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has recently become feasible and reliable, with most efforts focusing on miRNAs overexpressed by cancer cells. Identification of a characteristic circulating miRNAs profile in melanoma patients. We conducted a pilot study comprised of unbiased qPCR comparison of serum miRNA profiles between metastatic melanoma patients and healthy donors. Loss of two normal serum-miRNAs, miR-29c and miR-324-3p, is highly indicative of metastatic melanoma. Hierarchical clustering analysis supported the results and clearly distinguished melanoma patients from healthy donors, metastatic colon and renal cancer patients. This approach is independent of tumor heterogeneity and is expected to have superior biomarker performances.
299 Background: Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is among the 5 most common cancers in the US.... more 299 Background: Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is among the 5 most common cancers in the US. Despite several clinical trials attempting to determine the best approach to muscle-invasive disease, the optimal treatment modalities and their sequence have not been established. Specifically, the decision to administer neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is currently based solely on clinical parameters, with no validated biomarkers. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are short RNA molecules that have roles in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation by binding to mRNAs. They were shown to have cardinal roles in many cancers, and their potential to serve as biomarkers is extensively studied. Our goal was to study whether miRNAs can serve as predictive biomarkers for response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in urothelial carcinoma. Methods: miRNAs were extracted from paraffin-embedded pre-operative muscle-invasive tumor biopsies of patients diagnosed with urothelial carcinoma, whose pathological surgical s...
Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of ca... more Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of cancer biology, the identification of prognostic factors, and the development of new treatments are increasingly dependent on access to human cancer tissues with linked clinicopathological data. Access to human tumor samples and a large investment in translational research are needed to advance this research. The SMC tissue repositories provide researchers with biological materials, which are essential tools for cancer research. SMC tissue repositories for research aim to collect, document and preserve human biospecimens from patients with cancerous diseases. This is in order to provide the highest quality and well annotated biological biospecimens, used as essential tools to achieve the growing demands of scientific research needs. Such repositories are partners in acceLerating biomedical research and medical product development through clinical resources, in order to apply best options to the patients. Following Institutional Review Board approval and signing an Informed Consent Form, the tumor and tumor-free specimens are coLLected by a designated pathologist at the operating room only when there is a sufficient amount of the tumor, in excess of the routine needs. Blood samples are collected prior to the procedure. Other types of specimens collected include ascites fluid, pleural effusion, tissues for Optimal Cutting Temperature [OCT] and primary culture etc. Demographic, clinical, pathologicaL, and follow-up data are collected in a designated database. SMC has already established several organ or disease-specific tissue repositories within different departments. The foundation of tissue repositories requires the concentrated effort of a multidisciplinary team composed of paramedical, medical and scientific professionals. Research projects using these specimens facilitate the development of 'targeted therapy', accelerate basic research aimed at clarifying molecular mechanisms involved in cancer, and support the development of novel diagnostic tools.
Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots esta... more Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots establishment of independently operating biobanks has occurred virtually simultaneously in large Israeli teaching hospitals. The process of establishing a national biorepository network in Israel has progressed slowly, sustained mainly by a few proponents working together on a personal level. Slow progress has been due to limited funding and the lack of a legal framework specific to biobanking activities. Recently, due to increasing pressure from the scientific community, the government has earmarked funds for a national biorepository network, and the structure is now being established. In forming a network, Israel's biobanks face certain difficulties, particularly lack of support. Additional challenges include harmonization of standard operating procedures, database centralization, and use of a common informed consent form. In this article, we highlight some of the issues faced by Israel's biobank managers in establishing and sustaining a functional biobank network, information that could provide guidance for other small countries with limited resources.
Endothelium-journal of Endothelial Cell Research, 1995
... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biolog... more ... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biology, Oranim-University of Haifa, Tivon 36910, lsrael ... Endothelial cells and fibroblasts contain high affinity binding sites for ECGF on the cell surface (Schreiber et al., 1985). ...
The Arp2/3 complex and its activators, Scar/WAVE and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp), pro... more The Arp2/3 complex and its activators, Scar/WAVE and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp), promote actin polymerization in vitro and have been proposed to influence cell shape and motility in vivo. We demonstrate that the Drosophila Scar homologue, SCAR, localizes to actin-rich structures and is required for normal cell morphology in multiple cell types throughout development. In particular, SCAR function is essential for cytoplasmic organization in the blastoderm, axon development in the central nervous system, egg chamber structure during oogenesis, and adult eye morphology. Highly similar developmental requirements are found for subunits of the Arp2/3 complex. In the blastoderm, SCAR and Arp2/3 mutations result in a reduction in the amount of cortical filamentous actin and the disruption of dynamically regulated actin structures. Remarkably, the single Drosophila WASp homologue, Wasp, is largely dispensable for these numerous Arp2/3-dependent functions, whereas SCAR does not c...
Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of ca... more Cancer is the number one cause of death in both genders. Breakthroughs in the understanding of cancer biology, the identification of prognostic factors, and the development of new treatments are increasingly dependent on access to human cancer tissues with linked clinicopathological data. Access to human tumor samples and a large investment in translational research are needed to advance this research. The SMC tissue repositories provide researchers with biological materials, which are essential tools for cancer research. SMC tissue repositories for research aim to collect, document and preserve human biospecimens from patients with cancerous diseases. This is in order to provide the highest quality and well annotated biological biospecimens, used as essential tools to achieve the growing demands of scientific research needs. Such repositories are partners in acceLerating biomedical research and medical product development through clinical resources, in order to apply best options t...
Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots esta... more Over the past 5 years, using European and North American biobanks as models, the grass-roots establishment of independently operating biobanks has occurred virtually simultaneously in large Israeli teaching hospitals. The process of establishing a national biorepository network in Israel has progressed slowly, sustained mainly by a few proponents working together on a personal level. Slow progress has been due to limited funding and the lack of a legal framework specific to biobanking activities. Recently, due to increasing pressure from the scientific community, the government has earmarked funds for a national biorepository network, and the structure is now being established. In forming a network, Israel's biobanks face certain difficulties, particularly lack of support. Additional challenges include harmonization of standard operating procedures, database centralization, and use of a common informed consent form. In this article, we highlight some of the issues faced by Israel's biobank managers in establishing and sustaining a functional biobank network, information that could provide guidance for other small countries with limited resources.
Prostate cancer is the most common non-dermatologic malignancy in men in the Western world. Recen... more Prostate cancer is the most common non-dermatologic malignancy in men in the Western world. Recently, a frequent chromosomal aberration fusing androgen regulated TMPRSS2 promoter and the ERG gene (TMPRSS2/ERG) was discovered in prostate cancer. Several studies demonstrated cooperation between TMPRSS2/ERG and other defective pathways in cancer progression. However, the unveiling of more specific pathways in which TMPRSS2/ERG takes part, requires further investigation. Using immortalized prostate epithelial cells we were able to show that TMPRSS2/ERG over-expressing cells undergo an Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), manifested by acquisition of mesenchymal morphology and markers as well as migration and invasion capabilities. These findings were corroborated in vivo, where the control cells gave rise to discrete nodules while the TMPRSS2/ERG-expressing cells formed malignant tumors, which expressed EMT markers. To further investigate the general transcription scheme induced ...
... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biolog... more ... Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Assay NITSA MIRSKY and YEHUDIT COHEN Department of Biology, Oranim-University of Haifa, Tivon 36910, lsrael ... Endothelial cells and fibroblasts contain high affinity binding sites for ECGF on the cell surface (Schreiber et al., 1985). ...
Quantification of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has recently become feasible and reliable, with ... more Quantification of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has recently become feasible and reliable, with most efforts focusing on miRNAs overexpressed by cancer cells. Identification of a characteristic circulating miRNAs profile in melanoma patients. We conducted a pilot study comprised of unbiased qPCR comparison of serum miRNA profiles between metastatic melanoma patients and healthy donors. Loss of two normal serum-miRNAs, miR-29c and miR-324-3p, is highly indicative of metastatic melanoma. Hierarchical clustering analysis supported the results and clearly distinguished melanoma patients from healthy donors, metastatic colon and renal cancer patients. This approach is independent of tumor heterogeneity and is expected to have superior biomarker performances.
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