NCI Cancer Bulletin Publication Break The NCI Cancer Bulletin will not be published on December 20 and 27. We will resume publication on our usual schedule with the January 3, 2006, issue.

The conference was attended by 406 people from 37 countries. Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade opened the meeting with a pledge of personal support for the development of cancer programs in Africa. The keynote addresses were delivered by Dr. Simon Schraub of the Centre Paul Strauss in Strasbourg, France, and Dr. Joe Harford of NCI. For more information about AORTIC, go to www.aortic.org.

Roberts and Sporn Win Komen Brinker Award
Dr. Anita Roberts of NCI's Center for Cancer Research and Dr. Michael Sporn of Dartmouth Medical School were awarded the 2005 Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in basic research. They were recognized at the Brinker Dinner on December 8 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Drs. Roberts and Sporn have collaborated for more than 30 years on research on transforming growth factor beta, a messenger molecule integral to the activities of the cell cycle. Their work is now forming the basis of new therapeutic approaches in breast cancer.

The award was established by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1992 to recognize extraordinary achievement in breast cancer-related basic and clinical scientific research. Dr. Trevor J. Powles of Parkside Hospital in London received the award for clinical research.

Seminar Describes Cancer Disparities
Reporters covering health and minority issues joined faculty members and other associates of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York City on November 30 for an in-depth look at some of the latest research about the impact of cancer on minority populations. As part of NCI's Science Writers' Seminar series, several prominent experts in cancer disparities presented findings about the cause and extent of cancer incidence and mortality in minority or disadvantaged populations.

Several media outlets reported stories based on the event. HealthDay News published a story about the fatalism of some cancer patients, including those affected by poverty and lack of education, which also appeared on Forbes.com. The largest weekly newspaper serving Native Americans, Indian Country Today, is planning an article about cancer in the Native American community that will highlight NCI's Community Networks and Patient Navigator programs. A number of radio interviews with NCI staff also resulted from the seminar.

Software for Proteomics Analysis Available
NCI and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center recently announced the release of a comprehensive, Web-based software platform called the Computational Proteomics Analysis System (CPAS).

The new software platform is the first comprehensive, freely available resource for proteomics researchers. A paper describing the base system was published early online December 8 in the Journal of Proteome Research.

The software version 1.1, an analytical platform supported by NCI's cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid™, was developed at the Seattle-based Hutchinson Center as part of a large NCI-funded research consortium to develop basic platforms for research into proteomics. Members of the Hutchinson Center-led consortium include the Institute for Systems Biology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Plasma Proteome Institute.

CPAS will provide researchers with open-source tools for organizing, managing, processing, and interpreting the vast amounts of data generated by proteomics and other biological experiments.

For more information, go to https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/ICR/CPAS/document_view.

Complete the NCI Cancer Bulletin Survey
From now through December 22, you'll have the chance to give us your feedback about the NCI Cancer Bulletin by completing an online survey at http://www.ncipoet.org/CancerBulletinSurvey.

Survey responses are confidential and you can choose to skip any of the questions in the survey. For more information, contact Nina Goodman at goodmann@mail.nih.gov or 301-435-7789.