Seminars
Nov
15
Metabolism, Organelles and Membranes (MOM) Program Meeting
Chicago - 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Lurie Cancer Center's Membranes, Organelles and Metabolism (MOM) Program presents:
NAD+ Signaling Governs Muscle Stem Cell Clock Timing of Regeneration
Clara Peek, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
And Medicine (Endocrinology)
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Maximizing the Minimum: Best Practices for Low Cell Number LC-MS Based Metabolic Analysis
Samuel Weinberg, MD, PhD
Research Fellow and Resident Physician
Laboratory of Deyu Fang, PhD
Department of Pathology
Physician Scientist Training Program
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Nov
16
Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar: Autophagy, Secretion and Cancer
Online - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar Series and the Signal Transduction and Cancer Training Program (T32 CA070085) present:
Autophagy, Secretion and Cancer
Jayanta Debnath, MD
Distinguished Professor and Chair
UCSF Department of Pathology
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Autophagy is a catabolic process where a cell literally eats itself . During autophagy, the cytoplasm and organelles in a cell are sequestered within double membrane vacuoles, called autophagosomes, and delivered to the lysosome for degradation. In eukaryotic cells, autophagy primarily functions as a critical survival response during nutrient deprivation or stress. Autophagy plays a dual role in cancer, suppressing tumor initiation by clearing damaged proteins and organelles, and also promoting tumor progression by facilitating cancer cell survival and adaptation to stress. Although traditionally viewed to be an auto-digestive pathway, recent work demonstrates that autophagy also regulates secretion. This lecture will focus on recent work to illuminate the diverse cell biological mechanisms by which the autophagy machinery promotes secretion in cancer cells as well as to define how secretory autophagy in host stromal fibroblasts influences the tumor microenvironment in vivo. These studies provide fundamental insights into how (and where) to best therapeutically target autophagy to treat human cancers.
All members of the Northwestern Medicine community are invited to attend.
Nov
19
TEAM/SBDRC Seminar: Targeting Ga13 Signaling in Pancreatic Diseases
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University's Tumor Environment and Metastasis Program and the Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-Based Center present:
Targeting Ga13 Signaling in Pancreatic Diseases
Mario Shields, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
Heterotrimeric G proteins carry signals from G protein coupled receptors, the largest class of cell surface proteins that play critical roles in normal and pathological processes such as cell growth, differentiation, inflammation, and cancer. Our group previously showed that G 13, a member of the G12 family of G proteins, is elevated in some human pancreatic cancer tumors and regulates invasion in vitro. As a follow up to the previous studies, G 13 was investigated in a genetic engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer. This lecture will outline findings of an unanticipated tumor suppressor function of G 13 in pancreatic cancer. Loss of G 13 in the mouse pancreas promoted E-cadherin expression while decreasing survival in a mutant Kras/p53-driven tumor model. Furthermore, analysis of human and mouse pancreatic tumors showed loss of G 13 lead to elevated mTOR signaling. Importantly, tumors deficient in G 13 expression are sensitive to inhibition of mTOR signaling.
Nov
23
Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar: Fostering Basic and Translational Research thru the NU Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine
Chicago - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar Series presents:
Fostering Basic and Translational Research thru the NU Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine
Abel N. Kho, M.D.
Director, Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM)
Director, Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine (IAIM)
Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics) and Preventive Medicine (Health and Biomedical Informatics)
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
One ultimate goal of the Lurie Cancer Center s Basic Research Programs is the translation of discoveries into new diagnostics and therapeutics. New NU/FSM institutes such as the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine are being created to foster collaborative cross-disciplinary and translational research. This talk will feature current basic-translational phenotype-genotype, immunology, informatics, environmental health, medical records, and implementation science studies ongoing within IAIM. A discussion/brainstorming session will follow the presentation to foster community building and identify opportunities for further exploration together.
All members of the Northwestern Medicine community are invited to attend.
Dec
07
Translational Research in Solid Tumors (TRIST) Seminar: Expanding the Definition of Curable Prostate Cancer
Chicago - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Translational Research in Solid Tumors (TRIST) Program presents:
Expanding the Definition of Curable Prostate Cancer
David VanderWeele MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
Dr. VanderWeele s research and clinical practice focus on altering the course of potentially lethal genitourinary cancers. Recent themes in prostate cancer treatment are to broaden use of therapies. For example, systemic therapies typically used later in the disease course could be broadened to patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer, and therapies like radiotherapy, which is currently reserved for localized disease could be broadened to include patients with metastatic disease. Prostate cancer has also recently entered the era of biomarker-driven therapies for patients with defects in homologous recombination or mismatch DNA repair pathways. Biomarker-driven therapies, like inhibitors of the PI3K-AKT pathway, have also made it to phase III clinical studies. At the same time, imaging advances have helped to visualize metastatic disease when the disease burden is small. By combining these advances into comprehensive care protocols, we hope to expand the definition of patients with curable prostate cancer.
Dec
14
Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar: Reconstitution of a long-lived functional human thymus by postnatal clonogenic progenitors
Online - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar Series presents:
Reconstitution of a long-lived functional human thymus by postnatal clonogenic progenitors
Paola Bonfanti, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London,
UCL- UK
Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute London, UK
The Bonfanti lab focuses on harnessing the power of stem cells for regenerative medicine. The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ, essential for T cell maturation and selection. There has been long-standing interest in processes underpinning thymus generation and the potential to manipulate it clinically to ensure a healthy population of T cells. The lab has shown that epithelial-mesenchymal hybrid cells, capable of long-term expansion in vitro, can be used to reconstitute an anatomic phenocopy of the native thymus, when combined with thymic interstitial cells and a natural decellularised extracellular matrix (ECM) obtained by whole thymus perfusion. This anatomical human thymus reconstruction is functional, as judged by its capacity to support mature T cell development in vivo after transplantation into humanised immunodeficient mice. These findings establish a basis for dissecting the cellular and molecular crosstalk between stroma, ECM and thymocytes, and offer practical prospects for treating congenital and acquired immunological diseases, including cancer.
All members of the Northwestern Medicine community are invited to attend.