Valerie Castle, M.D.
Ravitz Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatric and Communicable Diseases Pediatrician-in-Chief
Director of the Taubman Institute's Neuroblastoma Research Program
Discovering Treatments for Childhood Cancers
When Valerie Castle began her career as a pediatrician in the early 1980s, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia had gone from near zero in the 1930s and 1940s to almost 50 percent. Today, survival rates exceed 85 percent. Great gains such as these in survival rates for children with cancer have occurred because of the persevering work of physician-scientists like Castle who have teamed together — at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and in networks with researchers around the world — to treat children collaboratively and with ever-increasing and far-reaching effectiveness.
Castle’s research focuses exclusively on the pediatric solid tumor, neuroblastoma. She is specifically interested in mechanisms of chemotherapy and radiation resistance as well as studies on the control of neuroblastoma invasion and metastases. Her latest studies have been in the area of chromosomal rearrangements, a hallmark of cancers including neuroblastoma. These can be caused by incorrect DNA repair. Castle’s laboratory has recently discovered that the levels of proteins involved in the repair of damaged DNA are abnormally high in neuroblastoma tumors, and these levels correlated with a shorter duration of patient survival, suggesting that defective DNA repair resulting in chromosomal abnormalities may contribute to the poor outcome or even the development of this disease.
Using the facilities of the Taubman Institute’s Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, Castle is now developing a neural crest stem cell model of this neuroblastoma. She is testing the hypothesis that overly active DNA repair during development of the neural crest stem cell into a nerve cell is a fundamental step in the development of neuroblastoma tumors. After differentiating an established human embryonic stem cell line into a neural crest stem cell, her investigators will express the DNA repair factors they believe are critical in the development of this tumor. These genetically modified lines will then be analyzed for their similarities and differences to human neuroblastoma cancer cell lines that have been established in the Castle laboratory. This groundbreaking work has the potential to uncover the underlying mechanisms in the development of this devastating cancer in children.
Research Findings:
- Progress Report, May 2010 (PDF, 150KB)
- HDAC6 Deacetylates Ku70 and Regulates Ku70-Bax Binding in Neuroblastoma (PDF, 1.7MB)
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Taubman Emerging Scholars Program
Request for applications
Applications are being accepted for the Taubman Institute Emerging Scholars Program.
The applicant must be a junior member of the faculty at the University of Michigan; generally, that means holding an assistant professor title. The applicant must have either an M.D. or an M.D./Ph.D. It is required that candidates both conduct basic research and treat patients.
Applicants should submit a two-to-three page research proposal, as well as a current CV. Priority will be given to proposals involving translational research. Please submit material to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The deadline is May 7, 2012.
Young Friends host festive NYC fundraiser
Reception introduced scholar candidate Dr. Parag Patil
About 125 supporters of cutting-edge medical research mixed socializing and science May 9 at a cocktail party in Manhattan hosted by the Young Friends of the Taubman Institute's New York City chapter.
The event introduced Dr. Parag Patil, a University of Michigan physician-researcher and a prospective Young Friends Emerging Scholar. Here's a clip from Dr. Patil's appearance on the TV program "The Doctors," where he demonstrates how deep-brain stimulation has helped a patient with Parkinson's disease.
Emerging Scholars are early-career clinician-scientists who show great promise in research aimed at new cures or treatments; through the Taubman Institute, donors support them with three-year grants while their labs earn the credentials to win broader funding support.
The Young Friends event, which raised a significant contribution toward the Emerging Scholars program, was held at the ABC Carpet & Home showrooms at 888 Broadway, Attendees enjoyed cocktails, appetizers, a silent auction and a presentation by Dr. Patil. The silent auction included jewelry, fashion items, a Botox consultation and treatment, Morgan Hotel Group rooms and the opportunity to bid on a meeting and photo with former President William Jefferson Clinton.
Taubman Research
Dr. Max Wicha: Some treatments actually increase cancer stem cells
Avastin and Sutent have been found to increase the growth of breast cancer stem cells in mice, according to Taubman Scholar Dr. Max Wicha, director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.
