Past Events

The American Society for Cell Biology 50th Annual Meeting Special Interest SubGroup
Date: December 11, 2010
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Organizer: Anna Maria Calcagno, Project Manager, Physical Science-Oncology Centers Program, National Cancer Institute, NIH

Session Title: The Role of Epigenetics in Cancer Cell Biology: A Physical Sciences Perspective

Environmental signals have a large impact on gene expression and trigger modifications to histones that ultimately control transcription, regardless of DNA sequence. These forces reversibly alter the physical parameters of the genome to regulate the transcription state. The National Cancer Institute’s Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers Program has assembled trans-disciplinary teams to investigate the physical and chemical forces that shape and govern the emergence and behavior of cancer at all levels. One of the major themes of this program focuses on information coding, decoding, transfer, and translation in cancer. Understanding epigenetics and information translation in the cell may yield novel insights into cancer. This session will highlight the study of epigenetics in cancer cell biology and will illustrate various tools utilized to unearth these epigenetic modifications.

Speakers:

12:30 pm - 12:40 pm	Epigenetics: The Physical Sciences in Oncology Perspective. Larry Nagahara,Program Director, Physical Science-Oncology Centers Program, National Cancer Institute, NIH
12:40 pm – 1:20 pm	Tissue Structure, Force and Death Resistance: Implications for Tumor Therapy. Valerie Weaver, Associate Professor of Surgery and Anatomy, Division of General Surgery, and Director, Center for Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration, University of California, San Francisco
1:20 pm – 2:00 pm	Epigenetics and Cistromics of Hormone Dependent Cancers. Myles Brown,Professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Chief, Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2:00 pm – 2:10 pm	Break
2:10 pm – 2:50 pm	New Nanoscale Tools for Reading and Mapping Epigenetic Markings. Stuart Lindsay, Regent's Professor, Edward and Nadine Carson Professor of Physics and Chemistry Director, Center for Single Molecule Biophysics, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University
2:50 pm – 3:30 pm	Cellular Reprogramming and Cancer Stem Cells. Paola Scaffidi, Cell Biology of Genomes Group, Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH
3:30 pm – 4:10 pm	Modeling the Contribution of Epigenetic Programming to the Pathogenesis of Acute Leukemias. Ari M. Melnick, Associate Professor and Director, Sacker Center for Physical and Biomedical Science, Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medical College
4:10 pm – 5:00 pm	General Questions and Answers