Scientist will speak on stem cells at symposium

Beverly Torok-Storb, a research scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, will be the guest speaker at the Sisters Science Symposium (S3) on February 25 at Sisters High School.

The symposium is free and open to the public. The symposium begins at noon with interactive exhibits and displays and includes a design competition in the gym. Torok-Storb will speak in the Sisters High School auditorium at 3:45 p.m. on "Stem Cells: Controversies and Resolutions."

Torok-Storb will help identify the characteristics of why stem cells are important to medical research. Stem cells have the remarkable potential to self-renew and to develop into many different cell types. They can remain a stem cell or become an entirely different type of cell with a more specialized function. Because of these regenerative abilities, stem cells offer new potentials for treating diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Torok-Storb moved from Pennsylvania in 1975 to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. Her initial research was in support of the bone marrow transplant program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC). She investigated on a case-by-case basis why some of these stem cell transplants failed. Her goal was to help identify effective treatments for these

failures.

These studies led to an understanding that stem cells, regardless of their source, adult or embryonic, are not autonomous. They require signals from other cells to initiate changes that lead to both steam cell division and their commitment to develop into specific tissue types. She is now focused on identifying the signals that control stem cells' fates. Results from these studies could make it possible to control stem cells after transplantation to ensure good graft function.