October 2007 dispatch@sloankettering.edu

This has been a summer of successes -- 20 undergraduate students completed a vigorous ten-week program of hands-on research; 13 top-notch young scientists were accepted into the school's PhD program; and our inaugural class of six PhD students have completed their first year of study and embarked on their dissertation projects.

Application for both fall 2008 admission to the PhD program and summer 2008 program is now open.

A team of scientists led by Gerstner Sloan-Kettering faculty member Gabriela Chiosis has found that Hsp90 enables the disease process in a group of neurodegenerative disorders marked by the accumulation of the protein Tau.

New research carried out in the laboratory of faculty member and molecular biologist John H.J. Petrini has shed light on one mechanism that helps the cell respond to DNA damage and prevent it from being passed on when the cell divides to create new cells.

Alexandra Leigh Joyner, a world leader in mouse developmental genetics, pioneered many of the gene manipulation techniques used today in laboratories around the world. She recently joined the faculty of Gerstner Sloan-Kettering.

The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center for Cell Engineering was established to take advantage of the important strides made in the genetic engineering of human cells over the past several years.