all Rakesh Jain stories

New strategy identified for improving effectiveness of cancer therapies

yvette — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:25:04 -0500

Manipulating levels of nitric oxide, a gas involved in many biological processes, may improve the disorganized network of blood vessels supplying tumors, potentially improving the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy.

Close interaction seen between blood vessel development and fat tissue formation

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:32:25 -0400

Findings from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital could eventually help to solve problems ranging from cancer, to obesity, to the development of replacement organs. The findings involve the key physiological processes of angiogenesis, the growth of new blood cells, and adipogenesis, the development and growth of fat cells, which appear to be so closely interwoven that interfering with one process also halts the other. Better understanding of the interaction between angiogenesis and adipogenesis and the development of ways to control and direct the processes could have a wide range of medical applications. Anti-angiogenesis compounds are already being evaluated as cancer-fighters, and the current results suggest they may be useful in combating obesity as well. The observation that blood vessels growing in response to adipogenesis form organized networks - in contrast to the inefficient networks that develop in and around tumors - might help with efforts to grow new organs and tissues, since the development of a circulatory system is a key challenge in the field of tissue engineering. The study was scheduled to be printed in the Oct. 31, 2003 issue of Circulation Research. It was published via the journal's website on Oct. 2.

Never-before-seen look inside the world of cancerous tumors

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:15:00 -0400

Harvard researchers working at Massachusetts General Hospital's Radiation Oncology unit have used a powerful new microscope to see inside cancerous tumors. The microscope is so powerful that it can see individual cells within a tumor. "We can see what's going on under the surface of the tumor without disturbing the tumor itself," says principal investigator Rakesh Jain, the A. Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. "This new technology gives us the ability to look deep inside the tissues of animals," says Edward Brown, a post-doctoral fellow in Jain's lab. The scientists are using a technique called multiphoton laser scanning microscopy to visualize individual cells. This technology allows them to monitor gene expression, therapy effectiveness and interactions between tumor cells and normal cells.