Spring 2008

  • Light Therapy Eases Bipolar Depression
  • Pitt Study Suggests Viruses May Contribute to Cancer
  • $23M Mellon Grant Funds Pediatric Research
  • Doctoral Students Without Borders
  • Pitt Cardiologists Identifies Gene
  • New “eWatch” Measures Stress
  • NSF Grant Studies Pollution
  • Pitt is Sixth in NIH Funding
  • Pitt, Partners Get $30 Million Gift for Telescope Project

UPCI Researchers Discover Virus Linked
to Deadly Skin Cancer

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), employing a new strategy to hunt for human viruses, have discovered a previously unknown virus strongly associated with a rare but deadly skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma.

The strategy was described in a recent issue of the journal Science by UPCI’s Yuan Chang, Patrick Moore, Huichen Feng, and Masahiro Shuda. This is the second tumorassociated virus discovered by Moore and Chang, a husband-and-wife research team who also discovered the cause of Kaposi’s sarcoma, another rare and deadly skin cancer.

Download the Spring 2008 Research Review

This issue is available only in PDF form. A PDF reader is required.

Top