LI-COR Donates to Harvard Medical School
to Further Cancer Signaling Pathways Research

March 4, 2010, Lincoln, NE: LI-COR Biosciences is providing funding to support research to characterize signal transduction pathways involved in cancer at Harvard Medical School. Dr. John Blenis is working on the identification and characterization of novel kinases/phosphatases involved in carcinogenesis. Using RNA interference (RNAi) to systematically screen the kinase and phosphatase component of the human genome Blenis and his team have identified several new survival kinases, phosphatases and associated regulatory subunits that promote cell survival. Building on this initial success, the Blenis lab is now applying a similar systematic RNAi screening approach on a genome wide scale to identify novel genes involved in important cancer signaling pathways.

" LI-COR has a tradition of supporting innovative research," says David Dilley, LI-COR senior executive vice president and general manager. "Of particular importance to us is furthering cancer research. This unique and singular gift to Dr. Blenis' lab reflects our support for his research and the promise we believe it holds for furthering our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this disease."

"We are delighted to receive this gift from LI-COR in support of the ongoing work in our lab," says Dr. Blenis. "Having funding to enable us to forge ahead in our research is critically important, and we believe will lead to important insights into cancer pathogenesis."

"We hope that this gift will help the Blenis lab to continue to discover and to understand new genes and proteins involved in cancer signal transduction pathways," says Dilley.