An international group of researchers has discovered that the mutated form of a gene called Palladin causes familial pancreatic cancer. The findings, published online December 12 in the journal PLoS-Medicine, may help explain why the disease is so deadly. The research project was led by Dr. Teri Brentnall, University of Washington associate professor of medicine, and supported by The Lustgarten Foundation, Canary Foundation, and other private sources.

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington School of Medicine, in collaboration with investigators at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, have mapped the location of a gene associated with inherited pancreatic cancer.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.2 million over five years to a bioengineering research partnership at the University of Washington devoted to heart muscle regeneration through tissue engineering and embryonic stem cell research.

The University of Washington Press, working with the Department of Scandinavian Studies, has launched two new book series that include Scandinavian co-publishers. New Directions in Scandinavian Studies issued its first volume this year and will add a second in March. Nordic Film Classics will issue its first two books in 2007.