Dr. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero of Stanford University

Dr. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero is paving the way to find better treatments for Ewing’s sarcoma, the second most common type of bone cancer in children. After completing medical school and residency training at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Sweet-Cordero became a post-doctorate fellow at the Broad Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Cancer Research and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It is here that he conducted his initial studies on Ewing’s sarcoma. He is now continuing this work in his own independent laboratory at Stanford.

Dr. Sweet-Cordero’s laboratory is attempting to reproduce, in a mouse, the genetic abnormality seen in patients with Ewing’s sarcoma. By using genetic engineering techniques, they are developing mice with the abnormal chromosome translocation that is seen in children with the disease. The goal is to study how Ewing’s sarcoma develops in a living organism. For example, it is not known what type of cell in the body is the cell of origin for Ewing’s sarcoma. By activating the translocation in different tissues within the mouse, and observing which mice develop cancer, Dr. Sweet-Cordero hopes to be able to answer this question. Generating mice that have a Ewing’s sarcoma-like cancer will also allow him to test novel therapies for use in humans.

Dr. Stephen Lessnick, Huntsman Cancer Institue, University of Utah

Dr. Lessnick is an Assistant Professor of pediatrics, adjunct Assistant Professor of oncological sciences, and an investigator at the HCI Center for Children. Lessnick earned his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University followed by MD and PhD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). He conducted his internship and residency at Children's Hospital in Boston, followed by a fellowship in pediatrics hematology. He completed postdoctoral research in the Pediatric Oncology Department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and joined HCI in January 2004.

Dr. Lessnick's Lab is interested in determining what genes are regulated by EWS/FLI (the key tumor-causing molecule in Ewing's Sarcoma), the role these genes play in the formation of Ewing's Sarcoma, and any other genetic alterations required for the genesis of Ewing's Sarcoma. To study these factors, Dr. Lessnick has developed model systems that allow the EWS/FLI to be turned on and off at will to determine which targets are altered and their roles in the development of Ewing's Sarcoma tumors. Through this process, Dr. Lessnick hopes to develop a complete understanding of the molecular basis of Ewing's Sarcoma and to apply this understanding to the treatment of patients with this devastating disease.