Ali Shilatifard to Join Stowers Institute

Kansas City, Mo. (Dec. 20, 2006) – Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Associate Director for Basic Sciences of the Saint Louis University Cancer Center, has accepted an appointment to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research as an Investigator. Dr. Shilatifard will establish his laboratory at the Institute in the spring of 2007.

     This appointment brings the Stowers Institute to a total of 21 independent research programs in cellular and molecular biology complemented by three technology centers devoted to bioinformatics, imaging, and proteomics.

     Shilatifard’s laboratory is performing groundbreaking research into the molecular pathway of leukemogenesis in the hopes of creating targeted therapies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He has been studying the family of proteins called MLL (mixed lineage leukemia) and ELL (11-19 lymphoid leukemia gene), which are found in translocations in patients suffering from AML.

     “It is a great pleasure to welcome Dr. Shilatifard to Kansas City,” said William B. Neaves, President and CEO. “He has already contributed important discoveries through his outstanding research on gene transcription, and we believe that within the environment of the Stowers Institute, he will do even more. Dr. Shilatifard’s work holds great promise for better ways of preventing and treating cancer, and it will also provide colleagues who study stem cells with new insights into the role of gene regulation in regenerative medicine.”

     From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Shilatifard was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation with Joan Conaway, Ph.D., and Ron Conaway, Ph.D., who are now Stowers Institute Investigators. He discovered a role for the ELL protein as an RNA polymerase II transcription elongation factor during his fellowship. Following these studies, Shilatifard’s laboratory at Saint Louis University has identified a role for MLL homologues (the ELL partners in AML) as a chromatin-modifying enzyme, thereby linking the process of AML pathogenesis to histone modifications.

     “Dr. Shilatifard was a natural recruit for the Stowers Institute,” said Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., Scientific Director. “He is doing excellent work in the regulation of gene expression and will be a great addition to our team of Principal Investigators working in this area.”

     Dr. Shilatifard’s team will devote attention to several specific areas of research. They include the study of the biochemical properties of transcriptional elongation control and the role they play in the regulation of gene expression and development; the study of the role of the histone methyltransferase MLL complexes and its translocation partners in the development of leukemia; and the study of the role of trithorax complexes in histone methylation, regulation of gene expression and development.

About the Stowers Institute
     Housed in a 600,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts basic research on fundamental processes of cellular life. Through its commitment to collaborative research and the use of cutting-edge technology, the Institute seeks more effective means of preventing and curing disease. The Institute was founded by Jim and Virginia Stowers, two cancer survivors who have created combined endowments of $2 billion in support of basic research of the highest quality.