Cancer Biology and Evolution Program Hosts 2019 Symposium

The Cancer Biology and Evolution (CBE) Program hosted its annual symposium on Oct. 14 in the Vincent Stabile Research Building. With more than 150 registrants, the day was filled with presentations, networking opportunities and poster sessions. The event was organized by Dr. Karen Mann, Molecular Oncology and Kristen Gilpin, CBE Program Coordinator. The day kicked off with breakfast and a welcome message by Dr. Elsa R. Flores, CBE Program Leader, highlighting a focus on translational opportunities for the program and team and interdisciplinary science.

The oral presentations were delivered by postdocs and students selected from submitted abstracts, faculty straddling the interface of basic and clinical research, and a keynote address delivered by Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, Columbia University, on "Of mice and men: learning about human prostate cancer by studying mouse models."  Her presentation focused on the importance of building and characterizing accurate mouse models for mouse/human cross-species analysis for the identification of key nodes for therapeutic targets.

Morning presentations were delivered by Garima Pandey, PhD, Molecular Oncology, "RMC-4550, an allosteric Inhibitor of SHP2, displays therapeutic efficacy in pre-clinical models of myeloproliferative neoplasms"; and Damon Reed, MD, Sarcoma, "Evolutionary inspired therapy for newly diagnosed, metastatic, Fusion Positive Rhabdomyosarcoma."

Poster highlights featured 14 posters selected from submitted abstracts. Lunch and a poster session followed, where attendees were able to mingle and present their research.

Afternoon oral presentations were given by the following: 

• Robert Vander Velde, Cancer Physiology – "Resistance to targeted therapies as a gradual Darwinian adaptation to inhibitor specific selective pressures"
• Shima Nakanishi, PhD, Tumor Biology – T"he polyamine-hypusine circuit controls an oncogenic translational program necessary for Myc-driven tumorigenesis"
• Nate Ward, PhD, Cancer Physiology – "NNT regulation of redox homeostasis supports mitochondrial metabolism and lung tumorigenesis"
• Greg Kimmel, PhD, IMO – "Neighborhood size-effects shape growing population dynamics in evolutionary public goods games"
• Marco Napoli, PhD, Molecular Oncology – "Pan-cancer analysis reveals TAp63-regulated oncogenic lncRNAs (TROLLs) at the crossroads of p53 mutations and AKT activation"
• Ken Tsai, MD, PhD, Pathology – "The Transition to Cancer – Modeling the Earliest Steps of Carcinogenesis"

A networking reception was held at the end of the day in the David Murphey Conference Room. Awards were presented by Dr. Karen Mann to the following:

• Oral presentation winners - Marco Napoli, PhD and Nate Ward, PhD
• Poster Highlights winners - Haley Ackerman, PhD and Lucia Mazzacurati, PhD
• Poster presentation winners – Bina Desai; Jeremy Frieling, PhD; Pompom Ghosh, PhD; Suman Govindaraju, PhD; Derek Park, PhD; and Brian Rodemoyer