• Primary Faculty Profiles
• Adjunct Faculty Profiles
• Crane, John, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Genco, Robert, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
• Gill, Steven, Ph.D.
• Knight, Paul, M.D. and Ph.D., Professor
• Lesse, Alan, Ph.D., Professor
• Murphy, Timothy, Ph.D., Professor
• O'Brian, Mark, Ph.D., Professor
• Rittenhouse-Olson, Kate, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Russo, Thomas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Departmental Publications
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• The Witebsky Center
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Faculty and Research

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Education:

2002 - 2005, S.I., Certificate Maintenance Program, (CM, continued certification April 2005 through April 2008
1985 - 1987, Postdoc, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
1984-1985, Postdoc, Roswell Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
1984, Ph.D., University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
1980, M.S., University of Kentucky
1978, Bachelor of Science, SUNY Environmental Science

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Research Interests:

Dr. Rittenhouse-Olson's research for the last 22 years has focused on carbohydrate antigens that are important in cancer and in infectious disease (bacterial, viruses and parasites). These structures play important roles in the growth, adhesion and spread of cancer cells and bacteria and viruses. Immune responses to these structures can therefore be an effective mechanism to decrease disease. The anti-carbohydrate immune response is usually T cell independent, more difficult to develop and less in magnitude than the immune response to proteins. Her long-term goals involve using information obtained about carbohydrates of related structures to manipulate the anti-carbohydrate immune response to improve clinical outcome. This work has involved use of synthetic oligosaccharides conjugated to bovine serum albumin as antigens, the use of structurally related synthetic oligosaccharides in inhibition studies, the use of antibody to carbohydrates in immunotherapy and immunolocalization of cancer, the use of genetic analysis of genes related to carbohydrate synthesis and adhesion, bacterial vaccine stability assays and bacteria rapid diagnosis assay development. The immunochemical aspects of this work were performed to determine the immunodominant regions of the sugars and the effects of small structural changes in the inhibitory oligosaccharides on the immunologic reaction.

She has been involved in research concerning the immune response to carbohydrate antigens since 1984, through experience gained while a post-doctoral fellow at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), gaining clinical diagnostic experience with Dr. T. Ming Chu, (the discoverer of Prostate Specific Antigen for diagnosis) and then carbohydrate experience with Dr. Khushi Matta (Carbohydrate synthetic chemist). Since that time,she has been involved in the development of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to defined saccharides as diagnostic markers or as vaccine candidates in both bacterial and cancer research.   Her laboratory, RPCI based for the first 9 years, and now at UB for the last 15 years, has had an emphasis on tumor associated carbohydrate antigens, and recently has been involved in 2 patent applications, “Use of anti-TF antibody to block metastasis of TF- antigen bearing tumors” (K R Olson, principle inventor of JAA-F11 monoclonal antibody), and “Carbohydrate Antigen-Nanoparticle Conjugates and Methods for Inhibiting Metastasis in Cancer” (K R Olson, co-inventor). Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (TF-Ag) is a tumor associated antigen that is exposed in many types of carcinoma cells including breast, prostate, colon, and bladder.

She has a strong interest in education, and is the current and founding Program Director of the undergraduate Biotechnology Program, is involved as a section editor of LabQ a teaching journal, involved with ASCP teaching efforts in PEPFAR, and also involved as a course coordinator in several courses and a lecturer in many others.

Relevant references:

R. Chaturvedi, J. Yan, J. Heimburg, S. Koury, M. Sajjad, and K. Rittenhouse-Olson. Immuno-PET and Biodistribution using Iodine-124 labeled anti- Thomsen-Friedenreich-Antigen Monoclonal Antibody JAA-F11. Applied Radiation and Isotopes. 2008. http://www.sciencedirect.com/dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2007.07.029

Jamie Heimburg, Jun Yan, Susan Morey, Olga V. Glinskii, Virginia H. Huxley, Vladislav V. Glinsky, Linda Wild, Robert Klick, Rene Roy and Kate Rittenhouse-Olson. Therapeutic Potential of a Monoclonal Anti-T-Ag Antibody for Breast Carcinoma. Neoplasia feature article, cover photo volume 8 :11 939-948. (2007)

Jason Catania, Barbara McGarrigle, Kate Rittenhouse-Olson, and James Olson. Induction of CYP2B and CYP2E1 in Precision-Cut Rat Liver Slices Cultured in Defined Medium Toxicology in Vitro. Vol. 21, No. 1, pages 109-115 (2007)

O. Kurtenkov, K. Klaamas, K. Rittenhouse-Olson L. Vahter, B. Sergejev, L. Miljukhina, L. Shljapnikova . IgG Immune response to Tumor-Associated Carbohydrate Antigens (TF, Tn, alphaGal) in Patients with Breast Cancer: Impact of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Relation to the Survival. Experimental Oncology 27, No 5 136-140. 2005

Li, G.,  Pandey, S.K. Pandey, Dobhal,M.P., Mehat, R., Chen, Y., Gryshuk, A., Rittenhouse-Olson, K., Oseroff, A., and Pandey, R.K. Functionalization of OEP-Based Benzocholrins to Develop Galectin-Specific Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy. J. Org. Chem. 69(1); 158-172. 2004.

Sally A.Quataert, Kate Rittenhouse-Olson, Carol S. Kirch, Branda Hu, Shelley Secor, Nancy Strong, and Dace V. Madore. Assignment of Weight-Based Antibody Units for 13 Serotypes to a Human Anti-pneumococcal Standard Reference Serum, Lot 89-S. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 2004 11: 1064-1069