A gene called Vitamin D3 Upregulated Protein 1 (VDUP1) has been found to play a crucial role in directing stem cells to diversify into immune cells known as natural killer cells.

Natural killer (NK) cells are large, granular blood cells known as lymphocytes that are able to eliminate virus-infected cells as well as tumour cells.

"Stem cells can develop into various cells and organs in the body," Inpyo Choi said, leader of the team from the state-financed Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology in Daejeon. We have found that when hematopoietic stem cells diversify into NK cells, the gene, Vitamin D3 Upregulated Protein 1 (VDUP1), plays a decisive role.

"We have also succeeded in developing technology needed to induce stem cells obtained from a patient's bone marrow to diversify into immune cells and activate them.

This is the first step toward developing new treatments using our own immune system to fight cancers and other serious diseases."

Scientists looking for ways to supplement existing cancer treatments including chemotherapy, radiology and surgical operations, welcomed the study published last week in Immunity, a journal of immunology.

The research found mice lacking the gene VDUP1 showed minimal changes in the development of other immune cells, but there was a "profound reduction" in the numbers of natural killer cells and decreases in the activity of the cells.

"These results suggest that VDUP1 is a critical factor for the development and function of NK cells in vivo," the team said they had extracted stem cells from mice and developed them into NK cells. These cells when injected into mice with skin cancers and confirmed the tumors were contained or killed.

This method if developed may enable stem cells to be extracted from a patient's bone marrow, culture NK cells developed from them and injected back into the patient's body to treat cancers.

South Korea has selected biotechnology, together with robotics and nanotechnology, as strategic sectors for future development and supports them with government subsidies for research.

Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, M.D., Ph.D., who won the 2004 chemistry prize, will discuss his research during a dinner address on March 16 at the Israel Museum. Hershko, a member of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, was honored for his discovery of ubiquitin, a molecule that helps flag a protein to be broken down. This system is used in a variety of cell processes including the immune system, cell division, and DNA repair. Errors in the system can lead to diseases such as cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis.

Scientists at the conference will address research advances in cancer genetics; cell signaling at the DNA/RNA level; immune system therapies; targeted treatments; novel approaches to breast cancer and solid tumors; and stem cell transplantation in the treatment of leukemia. A mini-symposium will address environmental causes of cancer.

Israeli scientists made some of the first discoveries implicating the p53 gene in cancer, now considered the most commonly mutated cancer-related gene, Levitsky said. They also contributed to current understanding of bone marrow transplant and stem cells, he said.

For more information about the conference, see novelapproaches/index.asp or hopkinskimmelcancercenter.

Conference sponsors include the Braman Family Foundation, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI), and the Israel Cancer Association in Israel and the United States.

Levitsky and colleagues hope to make the conference an annual event, alternating between American and Israeli locations.

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