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Dr. Olson received her M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1981) in immunology from the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, State University of New York at Buffalo. After completing an additional year as a postdoctoral fellow at SUNY at Buffalo, she began her appointment at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow from 1982-1984 with Dr. Robert Colvin at the Immunopathology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1984 she joined the angiogenesis group at the CBBSM as an Instructor in Pathology. Currently, Dr. Olson is exploring the use of angiogenin antagonists as therapeutic agents for cancer treatment as well as the potential use of angiogenin as a diagnostic/prognostic marker for cancer. She has overseen the satellite athymic mouse facility associated with the Center since 1987. Angiogenin antagonists in cancer therapy In collaboration with Dr. James Fett of this Center, Dr. Olson is currently examining the potential use of antagonists to angiogenin, a potent neovascularization agent, in human cancer models in athymic mice. She has found that in the standard ectopic model used for the screening of cancer agents, in which human tumor cells are injected subcutaneously in athymic mice, antagonists to angiogenin can delay, and in some cases, inhibit completely the growth of tumors. Dr. Olson is particularly interested in the use of orthotopic models of human cancer growth and metastasis in athymic mice, as these models show promise of being more clinically relevant. She has developed modifications of the orthotopic model examining the growth and metastasis of prostate cancer which allow for the testing of potential cancer therapeutic in large numbers of mice. Using this model, angiogenin antagonists have shown striking efficacy in preventing metastasis of an aggressive prostate tumor cell line implanted into the prostates of athymic mice. As new antagonists become available through her collaboration with Drs. Fett and Shapiro of the Center, these will also be studied in these models alone and in conjunction with standard cancer therapies. Diagnostic/prognostic use of angiogenin in cancer Dr. Olson has developed immunoassays for the measurement of angiogenin, both human and mouse, in tissue culture and biological fluids. In collaboration with Dr. Fett, she has found that angiogenin is secreted by human tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo in the above athymic mouse models of tumor growth and metastasis, suggesting that angiogenin may have potential as a diagnostic/prognostic marker. This proposal is being investigated, in collaboration with Brigham and Women¡¯s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, by measuring the levels of angiogenin in biological fluids of patients with prostate cancer. Similar studies for breast cancer are also being planned. Selected publications Olson KA, French TC, Vallee BL, Fett JW. A Monoclonal Antibody to Human Angiogenin Suppresses Tumor Growth in Athymic Mice. Cancer Res. 1994; 54:4576-4579. Olson KA, Fett JW, French TC, Key ME, Vallee BL. Angiogenin Antagonists Prevent Tumor Growth in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1995; 92:442- 446. Newton DL, Xue Y, Olson KA, Fett JW, Rybak SM. Angiogenin Single-Chain Immunofusions: Influence of peptide Linkers and Spacer between Fusion Protein Domains. Biochemistry 1996; 35:545-553. Piccoli R, Olson KA, Vallee BL, Fett JW. Chimeric Anti-Angiogenin Antibody cAb 26-2F Inhibits the Formation of Human Breast Cancer Xenografts in Athymic Mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1998; 95: 4579-4583. Olson KA, Byers HR, Key ME, Fett JW. Prevention of Prostate Tumor Metastasis by Antisense Targeting of Human Angiogenin. Submitted. Olson KA, Byers HR, Key ME, Fett JW. Inhibition of Prostate Carcinoma Establishment and Metastatic Growth by an Anti-angiogenin Monoclonal Antibody. To be submitted. Olson KA, Fett JW. Inhibition of Breast Cancer Development and Metastasis in Mice by Angiogenin Antagonists. To be submitted. ¡°Crystal Structure of a Complex Between an Fab Antibody Fragment and Human Angiogenin: Unique Characteristics and Therapeutic Implications¡± In preparation. Patents (Inventorships) Filed 3/21/97 "Antisense Inhibition of Angiogenin Expression". Filed 9/20/00 ¡°Methods for Detecting Prostate Cancer¡± (Provisional) ¡¡ ¡¡ ¡¡ Last updated: February 1, 2002 |