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UNC Lineberger was well represented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting held in Washington, DC.

Speakers included:

  • Chuck Perou, PhD, May Goldman Shaw Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology, gave a plenary talk on “The therapeutic implications of genome sequencing and expression analyses for breast cancer” and a second talk on “The implications of genome sequencing for clinical trial design.”
  • Neil Hayes, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine, took part in a media briefing and gave a talk: “Comprehensive genomic characterization of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in the Cancer Genome Atlas.”
  • Katie Hoadley, PhD, gave two talks: “RNA sequencing for analyzing expression of genes and isoforms” and “Multi-tumor analysis of TCGA data identifies expression commonalities across tumor types.”
  • Gary Johnson, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, spoke on “Breast cancer subtypes have selective kinome reprogramming in response to kinase inhibitors.”
  • Scott Magness, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, spoke on “Stem cells, enteroids, and organoids: A new era for in vitro models of the intestine.”
  • Angelique Whitehurst, PhD, gave a talk as part of a special Stand Up 2 Cancer session “An eye towards translation” – Her talk was titled “Framing therapeutic opportunities in tumor-activated gametogenic programs.”

Poster sessions participants:

  • Ruth Everett, PhD, research assistant professor, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy – Thakker lab: “Multiple cation-selective transporters contribute to the anti-proliferative effects of metformin in ovarian cancer cell lines.”
  • Peggy Gulley, MD, professor of pathology: “Case-case comparison of smoking and alcohol risk associations with Epstein-Barr virus-positive gastric cancer.”
  • Qiu Haifeng, MDBae-Jump lab: “JQ-1, a novel c-Myc inhibitor, suppressed cell proliferation and metabolism through the downregulation of lactate dehydrogenase A in ovarian cancer cells.”
  • Lara Haydee, PhD, postdoctoral research associate – Andrew Wang lab: “Nanoparticle formulation of KU55933 as a potent radiosensitizer”
  • Amanda Jackson, MD – Bae-Jump lab: “Antitumorigenic effects of phenformin in human ovarian cancer cell lines.”
  • Joshua Kilgore, MD – Bae-Jump lab: “The effects of NT1014, a novel AMPK activator, on ovarian cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis.”
  • Andrew Madden, PharmD – Zamboni lab: “Evaluation of the efficiency of tumor and tissue delivery of carrier mediated agents (CMA) and small molecule (SM) agents in mice using a novel pharmacokinetic (PK) metric relative distribution index over time (RDI-OT).”
  • Jun Nakamura, PhD, DVM, Xu Tian – Swenberg lab: “REV1 has critical roles in base excision repair intermediate-mediated transversion mutations but not for O6-methylguanine-initiated mutations in vertebrate cells” and “POLD3 is required for DNA damage response to endogenous and exogenous DNA damage in human cells.”
  • Ryan Phillips, PhD candidate – Allbritton lab: “A novel approach to the measurement of tyrosine phosphorylation dynamics in intact single cells using capillary electrophoresis.”
  • Gina Song, PharmD – Zamboni’s lab: “Relationship between tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), tumor delivery, and efficacy of PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) and non-liposomal doxorubicin (NL-doxo) in genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) of breast cancer (BC).”
  • Edina Wang, BS – Andrew Wang lab: “Differential cellular response to nanoparticle docetaxel and docetaxel at sub-therapeutic dose range.”
  • Sara Wobker, MD, MPH – Bae-Jump lab: “Nuclear homeoprotein SIX1 is associated with stage and grade of endometrial carcinoma.”
  • Chunxiao Zhou, MD, PhD – Bae Jump lab: “Dual targeting of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Using NVP-BEZ235 suppressed tumor growth in a genetically engineered mouse model of serous ovarian cancer.”

Special Sessions Participants:

  • Channing Der, PhD, Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Pharmacology – Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-AACR Research Grants Poster Presentation and Discussion and co-led a session on “Basic and translational research career paths in pancreatic cancer.”
  • Buddy Weissman, PhD, served as a mock study session chairperson for a Grant Writing Workshop

AACR Award Winner:

Patrick ShortUNC junior Patrick Short, a student in the lab of Dr. Joseph DeSimone, won a Bardos Science Education Award to participate in the AACR annual meeting for two years. The award encourages promising young students to pursue cancer research in their careers.

The Morehead-Cain Scholar, an applied mathematics and quantitative biology major, was recently named a Goldwater Scholar. The scholarship provides up to $7,500 per year for educational expenses to sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

He says, “ The opportunity to attend the AACR Annual Meeting as a part of the Thomas J. Bardos Award is a really incredible opportunity to get first-hand exposure to the latest advances in cancer research. In particular, the program of events is incredibly multi-dimensional, offering the opportunity to learn about cancer research from the perspective of pharmaceutical development, advances in personalized medicine, and tumor immunology and immunotherapy, just to name a few. Going forward, I hope to pursue an MD-PhD with a focus in computational genetics. I am particularly interested in personalized medicine and the use of high throughput technologies and large-scale data analysis for a wide variety of medical applications including cancer research and preventive care. I have no doubt that the Thomas J. Bardos Award and the opportunity to attend the AACR annual meeting will have a deep impact on my research career going forward.”