Nobel Laureate Lee Hartwell gives keynote address
TGen investigators took time away from their labs to spend the
day discussing their research projects through poster sessions and
oral presentations at TGen's third annual scientific symposium.
Internationally renowned scientist and Nobel laureate Dr. Lee
Hartwell, gave the keynote address.
The symposium was an overwhelming success filled with nearly 80
presentations on individual research projects currently underway in
TGen labs.
In his keynote address to TGen researchers, Dr. Hartwell, the President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, discussed the relatively new field of protein-based diagnostics. There are currently only a few protein diagnostics on the market; most common is a home pregnancy test. Dr. Hartwell likened the move from DNA-based diagnostics to protein-based diagnostics to the early days of sequencing the human genome. "Proteins hold a tremendous amount of information and this is the future we have to look forward to," said Dr. Hartwell. "The ultimate goal is to do better risk assessment and earlier detection of disease so patients can be treated more effectively."
Dr. Lee Hartwell, a 2001 Nobel Laureate and the President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, presented the keynote lecture at TGen's 3rd Annual Scientific Symposium.
In 2001 Dr. Hartwell won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for this pioneering work with yeast genetics. His work provided the foundation for understanding how normal cells divide and the mechanisms leading to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. The regulation of cell division is fundamental to understanding how cancer cells mutate and to developing approaches that predict, prevent or reverse that mutation.
Overlapping with TGen's annual scientific symposium was the inaugural meeting of the TGen Council of Scientific Advisors (CSA). In addition to providing input on the TGen's progress toward scientific goals, the CSA had the opportunity to interact with TGen faculty and students at the symposium. The time spent with this internationally recognized group was of great benefit to the TGen staff.
Awards for best poster presentations went to:
Yoganand Balagurunathan, PhD - Gene marker identification for tumor targeting using multivalent ligands
Kevin Brown, PhD - Development of single copy single oligonucleotide CGH: Preliminary analysis of genomic alterations in malignant melanoma
Julie Chatigny, BS - Resistance of breast cancer cells to TPA-mediated growth arrest correlates with a transcriptional signature for invasion and metastasis
Tae-Hoon Chung, PhD - Quantization of global gene expression profile data
Steven Day, MS - The expO Operations Management System: A laboratory management tracking system for scientific research
Mitsutoshi Nakada, MD, PhD - Phosphorylated R-RAS downstream EPHB2 signal regulates glioma cell adhesion, proliferation and invasion
Nahn Tran, PhD, was honored for his oral presentation on TWEAK-Fn 14 ligand-receptor system regulates glioma cell motility through Rac1 activation. Dr. Tran's award includes travel to an academic conference of his choice.
