Epigenetics and Cancer Medicine

Shu-Chun Chang is Assistant Professor of Ph.D. Program for Translational Medicine, Taipei Medical University. Dr. Chang trained in extracellular biology and glycobiology and began work on cancer research as her PhD study in Imperial College Lonfon from 2007 to 2011. She continued to work in the field of Immunology/inflammation as a Post-Doc at National University of Singapore (NUS, 2011-2015). She has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals. Her current interests are in chronic inflammation-associated tumors (e.g., colon cancer and breast cancer), and this has a profound impact in identifying new molecular therapies for autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiency and cancers.

Immune-overactivation and protumorigenesis, chronic inflammation-associated tumors, tumour microenvironment

Dr. Ting-Yuan (TY) TU is currently an Assistant Professor at Department of Biomedical Engineering at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan. In collaboration with Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre (SMART), he received his Ph.D. in Mechanobiology from National University of Singapore in 2015, Singapore. Prior to joining NCKU, he was an Application Scientist at Clearbridge Biomedics, in which his role was focused on developing downstream assays for analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for clinical applications.

In addition to studies on the clinical applications of circulating tumor cells, Dr. Ting-Yuan (TY) TU’s current research interests lie in the development of better biomimetic tumor microenvironment for cancer drug discovery, including the development of in vitro tumor models, 3D tumor invasive co-culture microfluidic platforms, and the investigation on migration of 3D tumor in hydrogels.

Dr. I.M. Bennani-Baiti currently serves as the Executive Editor of Cancer Epigenetics and Clinical Cancer Epigenetics. Dr. Bennani-Baiti has longstanding interests in pediatric cancer, epigenetics, epigenomics, chemistry, and biomathematics. He has extensive experience in reviewing and editing research papers, serving since 2009 as Executive Editor or Editor to nine biomedical journals, and as a Reviewer to more than a dozen other journals. AUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Human Genetics Fellow, he is also a Howard Hughes scholar who served on the Faculty of St. Louis University School of Medicine under the chairmanship of Dr. William Sly, a member of theNational Academy of Sciences, USA, who characterized the syndrome named after him. Other tenures include theMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York alongside Dr. Mark Ptashne, Lasker Award laureate and member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. Dr. Bennani-Baiti is a member of the Society for Mathematical Biology, the American Chemical Society, and the AACR Pediatric Cancer Working Group. He is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, USA, and President of the Cancer Epigenetics Society (https://ces.b2sg.org).

Dr. I.M. Bennani-Baiti is interested in all aspects of epigenetics research that may have a bearing on cancer biology, diagnosis, management, or treatment. He is also interested in bioinformatics methods that enable inference of biological significance from underpowered studies, as well as mathematical algorithms that help query cell signaling and gene networks directly in patient samples.

Dr Jenny Wang is Head of the Cancer and Stem Cell Laboratory at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She returned to Australia in 2011 from Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, where she undertook postdoctoral research in Leukemia Stem Cell Biology (2005-2011). The main research focus in Dr Wang’s Laboratory is to develop novel therapeutic strategies specifically targeting leukemia stem cells that are often resistant to commonly used cancer therapies and that are now believed to be the engine driving the growth of a tumor and the major cause for treatment failure and relapse in leukemia.

cellular and molecular mechanisms, genetic and/or epigenetic genes, oncogenic pathways in leukaemia stem cells.

David Ligon brings more than 30 years of experience in Information Technology to the table, with a focus on Web and Systems design as well as Technical Documentation, Education, Grants and Leadership. David first gained global leadership experience and recognition by leading the iPad Revolution in Special Education. The collaborative presentation was delivered by colleagues Scott Meech and Eric Sailers at ISTE2011 in Philadelphia and was well received. While leading the IT Department for a school district in Phoenix's East Valley, David Ligon initiated an effort to bring 21st Century Technology into the schools by exploring appropriate use of social media for K-12. As part of that research, David established a global collaborative network of Education Technology Leaders, and other professionals, including John C. Maxwell, whom later included David as a contributor to his book on Leadership entitled "Everyone Communicates: Few Connect" on page 252. Once again David has risen to another global leadership effort, this time in the vitally important field of Epigenetics--the 21st Century science of approaching cancer diagnosis and treatment from a genetic-based viewpoint. Given David's passion for cutting-edge research and technology, it was only natural his direction would evolve in life to combine all these gifts into Epigenetically focused and Knowledge Management-based Cancer Research Portal of the 21st Century to foster communication and collaboration in the industry--all with the Goal of Saving Lives through Awareness and Knowledge-sharing.

Epigenetics and Cancer

Dr. Mukesh Verma is a Program Director and Chief in the Methods and Technologies Branch (MTB), Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP) of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) with expertise in implication of epigenome, microbiome, metabolome, and genomic information for risk assessment and understanding disease etiology. He represents NCI in Common Fund Programs on (1) Epigenomics, (2) Metabolomics, and (3) Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity. Before coming to the DCCPS, he was a Program Director in the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), NCI, providing direction in the areas of biomarkers, early detection, risk assessment and prevention of cancer, epigenetics, epidemiology, and cancers associated with infectious agents. Since joining the NCI, he has sought to champion the visibility of and investment in cancer epigenetics research both within the Institute and across other federal and non-governmental agencies, and to raise public awareness about controlling cancer. Dr. Mukesh Verma holds a M.Sc. from Pantnagar University and a Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University. He did postdoctoral research at George Washington University and was a faculty member at Georgetown University Medical Center. He has published 161 research articles and reviews and edited five books in cancer biomarkers, epigenetics and epidemiology field. Home Page http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/mtb/

Epigenome, Microbiome, Metabolome, and genomic information for risk assessment and understanding disease etiology.

Marvin H. Caruthers is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado. A Guggenheim Fellow, Dr. Caruthers completed the Ph.D. at Northwestern University and post-doctoral studies at MIT. Professor Caruthers interests include nucleic acids chemistry and biochemistry. Approximately 35 years ago, the methodologies for chemically synthesizing DNA/RNA were developed in his laboratory and incorporated into instruments for synthesizing DNA/RNA as used by biochemists, biologists, and molecular biologists. He is the recipient of several academic and research awards including The National Academy of Sciences Award in the Chemical Sciences, The Prelog Medal, The Economists Award in Biotechnology, and The US National Medal of Science. Dr. Caruthers is an elected member of The US National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The National Inventors Hall of Fame, and a Corresponding Member of the German Academy of Science Gottingen. He is a co-founder of Amgen and Applied Biosystems.

Bio-Organic & Bio-Inorganic, Nucleic Acids, Chemical Biology/Genetics

Dr. Hanna, the founder and CEO of Ribomed Biotechnologies, received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis and did her postdoctoral work in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. She was an Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of California Irvine College of Medicine, where she received Young Investigator awards from the American Cancer Society and the Beckman Foundation, and an Associate Professor of Biochemistry until she founded Ribomed. Dr. Hanna is the inventor of the Abscription/CAPS technology. She has been awarded over $10 million in grants and contracts and her work has resulted in numerous publications and patents. Dr. Hanna also serves on the Grant Review Board for Praespero, an autoimmune disease foundation.

genetics, genetics disorders, cancer biology

David S Schrump is a Surgical Chief who oversees clinical and translational research pertaining to thoracic and gastrointestinal malignancies, including the development of innovative molecular approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of these neoplasms. He has pioneered the development of epigenomic therapies for thoracic cancers. Using unique in vitro models and correlative experiments with surgical specimens, he has characterized epigenetic responses to tobacco carcinogens, and identified novel therapeutic targets in lung and esophageal cancers and pleural mesotheliomas. His clinical protocols have demonstrated that chromatin remodeling agents simultaneously induce growth arrest and augment immunogenicity of thoracic malignancies; these efforts have provided rationale for combining epigenetic regimens with immunotherapies for these neoplasms.

Genetics, Epigenetics

Dr. Zhang graduated from Johns Hopkins University with PhD. He has worked at Harvard University Genome Centre as Senior System Biologist for years before joining University of Hong Kong in 2013. Dr. Zhang lab has broad interest in the interaction between genetics and epigenetics components, and its implications in tumorigenesis (Nature Immunology 2012). Epigenetic factors, such as chromatin-remodelers, epigenetics enzymes, and non-coding RNA, are key players to shape epigenetic landscape. His lab has made some breakthrough recently in cancer (epi)genetics, such as systematically cataloguing all of the chromatin regulators involved in tumorigenesis (Nucleic Acids Res 2017), developing a novel method to identify chromatin regulators (CRs) functioning as tumorigenesis driver, building a computer server to identify cancer master regulators, identifying a liver cancer stemness subtype regulated by a core microRNA regulatory circuitry, and characterizing DNA methylation at enhancer with causal effects on tumorigenesis (papers under revision).

genetic and epigenetic regulation in development and diseases

Dr.Kadir Mardam Bek graduated with excellence as a Doctor of dental surgery (DDS) from The Dental Faculty of the International University for Science and Technology in 2010. He spent five years of comparative clinical research about “Traumatic Facial Scars” for Master’s Degree (MSc) and graduated with Excellence in 2015. Dr.Kadir Obtained at 2016 The Syrian Boared in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He is currently obtaining his Doctorate of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (PhD) from Damascus University. Believing in the importance of continuing medical education, Dr.Kadir attended more than 50 national and international courses and conferences in the field of Dental Implantology, Cosmetic Dentistry including Facial and Smile Analysis, Rhinoplasty and Facial Plastic Surgery.

Dental Implantology, Cosmetic Dentistry including Facial and Smile Analysis, Rhinoplasty and Facial Plastic Surgery

Dr. Alvaro Macieira-Coelho completed an MD at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, was an intern at the University Hospital, was a research associate at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, and completed a PhD at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He was appointed Head of the Department of Cell Pathology, Cancer Institute, Villejuif, France and Research Director at the French National Institute of Health. He has authored 150 peer-reviewed articles and published nine books. Awards: Fritz Verzar prize, University of Vienna; Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Linköping; Johananof International visiting professor, Mario Negri Institute, Milan; Seeds of Science Career prize, Lisbon.

cancer, genetics

Kári Stefánsson, M.D., Dr. Med. has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director since he founded deCODE genetics in August 1996. Dr. Stefánsson was appointed the Chairman of the Board of Directors of deCODE genetics in December 1999. From 1993 until April 1997, Dr. Stefánsson was a professor of Neurology, Neuropathology and Neuroscience at Harvard University. From 1983 to 1993, he held faculty positions in Neurology, Neuropathology and Neurosciences at the University of Chicago. Dr. Stefánsson received his M.D. and Dr. Med. from the University of Iceland and is board-certified in neurology and neuropathology in the United States. He has published numerous articles on the genetics of common/complex diseases and has been among the leaders of the world in the discovery of variants in the sequence of the human genome that associate with the risk of common/complex traits. Dr. Stefánsson was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential men of the year for 2007 and by Newsweek as one of the 10 most important biologists of the 21 century. He was the recipient of the Jakobus Award 2007, The World Glaucoma Association Award for present scientific impact 2007, The European Society of Human Genetics Award 2009, and The Andre Jahre Award 2009.

neurology, neuropathology, and neurosciences

Alyssa Alabassi is a British entrepreneur and UK trained and qualified practicing surgeon with extensive knowledge of the various layers of the health system in UK. She worked in an Advanced Computation Laboratory at Cancer Research UK devising IT solution for connected and integrated care pathways. She chaired international business meetings on Big Data, Population Based Solutions, Predictive Analysis and Connected Objects. Her research interest is in Breast Cancer and Familial Breast Disease and has successfully setup prevention clinics for patients at high risk of developing breast cancer.

Cancer

Sinisa Dovat completed his clinical training in Pediatrics at Pennsylvania State University, and in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UCLA-Children’s Hospital. He received his research training at Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UCLA. As an independent investigator at University of Wisconsin, he focused his work on the regulation of the tumor suppression in childhood leukemia. He is the recipient of The Young Investigator Award by The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and has been included in the best doctors in America list. Since September 2010, he has been serving as the Four Diamond Endowed Chair and Director of Translational Research and Developmental Therapeutics in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA. His research interests include epigenomic regulation and transcriptional control of cellular immortalization and senescence in leukemia and experimental therapy of malignant diseases.

Genetics

Malgorzata Wiench is a Lecturer in Cancer Biology at University of Birmingham. Uniquely based between the School of Dentistry and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Medicine, she aims to understand the mechanisms by which chromatin organization and DNA methylation regulate gene expression in health and disease and to develop the basis for patient-tailored epigenetic cancer therapies. The investigations focus on the role of nuclear receptors, DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation in the functioning of distal regulatory elements. She has received grants from the Marie Curie Action (FP7) and Royal Society.

Epigenetics, Cancer biology

Bernd Kaina completed his PhD in Genetics from Universtity of Halle, Germany in 1976. He completed his Postdoctoral training at the Institute of Genetics in Gatersleben and continued his studies on DNA repair in the Department of Molecular Biology in Leiden, Netherlands and at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and, as a Heisenberg Fellow in the Department of Genetics of the Nuclear Research Center in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1993, he obtained a full professorship at Institute of Toxicology of the University of Mainz and, since 2003; he acts as a Director of the Institute. His research program focuses on MGMT and the regulation of repair genes, DNA damage signaling, genotoxicity, cancer formation and death of cells exposed to radiation, chemical genotoxins and anticancer drugs. In a translational research program, his group studies the mechanisms of resistance of glioma, melanoma and other cancer cell types to alkylating anticancer drugs.

Cancer

Mario Bauer is a specialist in environmental health at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. His scientific work is focused on identification and risk assessment of environmental and individual genetic dispositions accounting for environment-related diseases. He is an expert in toxicology. Beyond his research interests he gives private lectures and seminars in environmental medicine at the University of Leipzig.

Environmental epigenetics, Aryl hydrocarpon receptor signaling

Dr. Bennani-Baiti, a former Howard Hughes Scholar and Human Genetics Fellow at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, carried out research into the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He later joined the faculty of St. Louis University School of Medicine wherein he continued this work. He currently leads several research programs at the Children′s Cancer Research Institute into the systems biology of childhood cancers, with a particular interest in sarcomas and other mesenchyme-derived tumors. He is also interested in the deregulation of signaling pathways (e.g. p53, Notch) and miRNAs in cancer, in epigenetics and epigenomics, and in novel methods to inferring tumor biomarkers and drug targets from Omics datasets. Dr. Bennani-Baiti is an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research, AACR Pediatric Cancer Working Group, Epigenetics Society, International Society for Systems Biology, and Society for Mathematical Biology.

Dr. Bennani-Baiti is interested in the mechanisms of tumor pathogenesis, as well as in tumor, metastasis, and prognosis markers, with a current focus in childhood cancers. He has recently developed bioinformatic and mathematical methods to uncovering genes significantly associated with particular disease states from small-size cohorts (which cannot be analyzed with conventional statistical methods for lack of statistical power), the only cohorts available for most childhood and adult cancers. Using such methods, he has for example discovered the first metastasis and prognosis molecular markers of Ewing′s sarcoma, a highly aggressive tumor of bone and soft tissues that afflicts mostly children and young adults. He is also interested in inferring signaling pathway status and connectivity directly from tumor specimen. He is also conducting investigations into the epigenetic mechanisms of tumorigenesis.

H.E. Dr. Maryam Matar is the former Director General of the Community Development Authority (CDA), which undertakes to formulate social policies and deliver social services that are in line with and contribute to the achievement of the social development objectives of Dubai Strategic Plan 2007 – 2015, launched by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum on February 3rd, 2007. In 2005, Dr. Matar was the leader of the executive team that set up social development strategies for Dubai Strategic Plan. Born in 1975, Dr. Matar holds a B.A. in Medicine and Surgery (1993-1998) and a degree from the Family Medicine Residency Program with distinction. She is also a graduate of the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Program for Leadership Development with distinction, second batch (2003-2004). Furthermore, Dr. Matar is the founder and Executive Director of two non-profit civil associations, “UAE Down’s Syndrome Association” and “UAE Genetic Diseases Association”, which support families from 17 different nationalities. In addition, she has initiated several national community outreach programs such as “UAE Free of Thalassemia by 2012” and established a number of Wellness Centers in Higher Colleges of Technology and Dubai Ladies Club.

Genetics