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A Broad-Spectrum Integrative Design for Cancer Prevention and Therapy
This Halifax Project1 task force focused on "A Broad-Spectrum Integrative Design for Cancer Prevention and Therapy". 180 participating scientists from 22 countries were formed into 12 teams (see below) because the current approach to cancer chemotherapy (i.e., one that focuses mainly on cytotoxics and/or chemicals aimed at single targets) has serious limitations that must be improved upon. While some important therapeutic gains have certainly been achieved using the current biomarker-driven, personalized approach to therapy, disease relapse (caused by intra-tumoral heterogeneity and adaptive resistance) continues to be a significant ongoing problem in the clinic. At the same time, drug toxicities and multiple drug resistance issues have severely constrained the physician’s ability to pursue more than just a handful of relevant targets in refractory cancers. Consequently, this task force leveraged the rapid advances in our knowledge of the mechanics of the disease to develop a robust and non-toxic, broad-spectrum approach to both prophylaxis and therapy (i.e., one that will be aimed at many prioritized targets simultaneously). In essence, this group has the foundation for a ground-breaking new direction in translational research that will be able to address the many mutations that make this disease so difficult to stop. This work was captured in a special issue of Elsevier’s Seminars in Cancer Biology (2014 Impact Factor: 9.330) - click here for details. The capstone paper from this effort can be found here.
The teams that worked on this project are shown below.
Angiogenesis
Lasse Dahl Jensen, PhD, Karolinska Institutet And Linkoping University (Sweden) -
Dr. Jensen is the scientific head of the zebrafish facility at Linkopings University, a position that he has filled since 2011. He is also associated as a junior group leader in Prof. Yihai Cao's lab at the Karolinska Institute. Dr. Jensen received a civil engineering degree (masters in biotechnology) from the Technical University of Denmark and did his Ph.D at the Karolinska Insititute. Since then Dr. Jensen has completed two short post docs at the Karolinska Institute and Linkoping University. Dr. Jensen has for 8 years contributed to the field of tumor angiogenesis, as well as angiogenesis in general using mainly zebrafish and mouse models as his experimental platform. Currently he is focused on hypoxia and circadian signaling pathways and how they regulate physiological and pathological angiogenesis, including tumor angiogenesis.
Click here to view entire team
Bassel El-Rayes, MD, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University
(United States) - Dr El-Rayes is an Associate Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, Director of the GI Oncology Translational Research Program at the Winship Cancer Institute and Medical Director of the Clinical Trials Office at the Winship Cancer Institute. Dr. El-Rayes completed his internal medicine residency at Wayne State University, the hematology oncology fellowship program at the Wayne State University and then was an Assistant Professor (GI oncology) involved in translational pancreatic cancer research. Dr. El-Rayes joined Emory University in September 2009 and is designated as a Distinguished Cancer Scholar by the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
Ganji Purmachandra Nagaraju, PhD , Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University
(United States) - Dr. Ganji Purnachandra Nagaraju, PhD., is an Instructor at the Emory University School of Medicine. His work mainly focuses on basic as well as translational cancer research. He published above 30 research papers in several prestigious peer-reviewed journals, presented above 25 abstracts in various conferences. He was also given Junior Scientist award by the ASIOA. He is a member of four reputed scientific societies in the USA. He serves as an editorial board member and a reviewer of several internationally recognized academic journals. As a leading researcher in the cancer field, he is currently investigating the role of HSP-90 inhibitors, curcumin and its analogues in advanced cancers. 
Charlotta Dabrosin MD, PhD, Linkoping University
(Sweden) - Charlotta Dabrosin MD, PhD is full professor of Oncology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linkoping University. Charlotta Dabrosin is also a board certified specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Gynecological Oncology. She has a research focus in breast cancer carcinogenesis and regulation of angiogenesis in breast tissue and has been involved in several clinical trials. Charlotta Dabrosin is scientific secretary of the Regional Ethical Review Board in Linkoping.
Daniele Generali, MD DPhil, Breast Pathology Unit, Azienda Istituti Ospitalieri Di Cremona
(Italy) - Head of Molecular Therapy Unit. Dr. Generali supervises and assists scientists in the unit involved as investigators in experimental protocols related to pathways involved in resistance or responsiveness to chemotherapy or endocrine treatments in breast cancer. His group is also studying the changes related to hypoxia and angiogenesis before and after neoadjuvant treatment in breast cancer. He has also been involved in the management and care of patients with breast cancer, i.e., assessing new patients, review of patients on follow-up, planning and prescribing cancer therapy and symptom relief. As well he follows patients undergoing neoadjuvant treatment and patients with breast bone metastasis.
Domenico Ribatti, MD, University Of Bari Medical School, Bari
(Italy) - Full professor of Human Anatomy in the Human Anatomy and Histology section of the Department of Basic Biomedical Sciences. Dr Ribatti is a prolific researcher and frequent collaborator in the field of angiogenesis. He is interested in the Role of FGF-2 and VEGF in the vascularization of the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane, angiogenesis in hematological tumors and bone tumors as well as antiangiogenesis in neuroblastoma. His collaborative efforts include studies related to the role of mast cells, chemokines, PDGF, transferrin, sugars, ET-1, PlGF, NGF, esosinophils and basophils in angiogenesis. As well he has researched the role of leptin an adrenomedullin in angiogenesis. He has characterized new antiangiogenic molecules and he has studied angiogenesis in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy as well.
Mark Fuster, MD, University Of California, San Diego & VA San Diego Healthcare System
(United States) - Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care. Dr Fuster's research focuses on the glycobiology of vascular endothelial remodeling as well as cell traffic in the lymphatic microenvironment. His group is particularly interested in mechanisms by which proteoglycans may modulate the actions of endothelial growth factors and chemokines in the tumor microenvironment.
Xin Yin, PhD, University Of California, San Diego & VA San Diego Healthcare System
(United States) - Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care. Dr. Yin's research focus is to understand how a class of sugar molecules called heparan sulfate within the lymphatic microenvironment regulates cell trafficking through lymphatic vasculature. Her specific interest is to investigate how traffic by tumor cells as well as immune cells in the lymphatic vasculature is modulated by lymphatic endothelial heparan sulfate, and how such modulation may impact the pathological development of diseases such as cancer. 
W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, UNC Chapel Hill
(United States) - Dr Rathmell is the Translational Research Director, MD-PhD Program, and Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her group focuses on tumorigenesis in renal cell carcinoma. The group uses mouse models, molecular strategies, and translational studies. They have developed genetically engineered murine models bearing clinically important point mutations in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene, which is mutated in over 80% of clear cell renal cell carcinomas. The team also investigates the effects of VHL on processes integral to tumorigenesis including angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, hypoxic response signaling, extracellular matrix remodeling, and cell cycle signaling. They are also interested in specific molecules which define the risk for developing metastatic disease, and explore imaging strategies to predict responses to therapy. Their work also involves finding novel targets for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, and working to develop them for eventual use in patients.
Alexandra Arreola, University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
(United States) - Alexandra Arreola is a senior graduate student in the Rathmell lab. She is pursuing her PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology and has a project examining HIF and hypoxia signaling in cancer. 
Yi Charlie Chen, PhD, Alderson-Broaddus College
(United States) - Dr.Chen is Associate Professor of Biology. He received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Zhejiang University in China. He then received his second Master of Science degree and a Doctoral degree from Washington State University. Dr. Chen has also worked as postdoctoral fellow at USDA and Oklahoma State University. Dr. Chen is currently working on the molecular biology of cancer. His research has focused on the inhibition of anti-cancer drugs on angiogenesis: the growth of blood vessels that provide nutrients to cancer cells and are essential for tumor growth.
Zongwei Wang, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
(United States) - Senior scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Currently Dr. Wang's research includes diabetes urological complication and prostate cancer. Before he moved to Boston, he was a full professor of Chinese Herbal Medicine in China.
Deregulated metabolism
Matthew Hirschey, PhD, Duke University (United States) -
Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition and in the Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology at Duke University Medical Center, and faculty member of the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Duke. Dr Hirschey's research focuses on genes, proteins, and pathways that control metabolism, and his lab explores different aspects of the biology of mitochondrial energy production as a crucial cellular process which is an important regulator of human health and diseases such as cancer.
Click here to view entire team
Eoin McDonnell, Duke University
(United States) - 
Anna Mae Diehl, MD, Duke University Medical Center
(United States) - Dr. Diehl is professor of medicine, chief of gastroenterology, and director of the Liver Center at Duke University. Dr. Diehl's research focuses on basic mechanisms of liver injury and repair. She is particularly interested in identifying immune-related mechanisms that regulate these processes in both alcohol-induced and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. She did some of the earliest basic research about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease pathogenesis, demonstrating the importance of hepatic steatosis as a biomarker for hepatic vulnerability to cytokine-mediated oxidant stress. More recently, work from her laboratory has identified a previously unsuspected role for the fetal morphogen, sonic hedgehog, in adult liver repair. Emerging data indicate that hedgehog signaling controls epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions in adult liver progenitors, thereby modulating both liver regeneration and fibrogenesis.
Anne Le, MD, MSc, Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine
(United States) - Dr Le's research is primarily focused on cancer metabolism, specifically studying the key enzymes of glycolysis and glutaminolysis: lactate dehydrogenase A and glutaminase. Her research has shown that the inhibition of these enzymes induced oxidative stress thereby inhibiting tumor progression, demonstrating that targeting these metabolic processes can be used in the near future as a feasible cancer therapy. Using a Metabolomics approach, her laboratory is defining the factors that predict the sensitivity of pancreatic cancers to current chemotherapies and also to novel small drug-like molecules. The goal of Dr Le's lab is to characterize and enable targeted selection of patients based upon predicted metabolic response. Furthermore in this pursuit, her team has developed an innovative dual fluorescent protein reporter, termed HypoxCR, which can simultaneously detect cells that are hypoxic and/or cycling to study the effects of the tumor's microenvironment on the sensitivity to metabolic inhibitors.
Brad Poore, Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine
(United States) - Brad Poore is a current PhD student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Originally from Montana, he graduated with highest honors from Montana State University, where he conducted research on Adeno-associated virus capsid structure. Upon entering graduate school, his focus changed to cancer and cancer metabolism. His primary interest is how cancer metabolism is involved with pancreatic adenocarcinoma tumorgenesis. 
Christian Frezza, PhD, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, Cancer Cell Unit
(United Kingdom) - Christian Frezza is an MRC Programme Leader at the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, Cambridge. Christian's research is aimed to the understanding of cellular metabolism and the intricacies of the process of cellular transformation, particularly focusing on the metabolic relation between cancer cells and the surrounding tissues. His major goal now is to exploit this biochemical knowledge to pioneer novel therapeutic strategies for cancer.
Costas A. Lyssiotis, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College
(United States) - Costas A Lyssiotis obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Michigan and his PhD in chemical biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. In 2010, Costas joined the laboratory of Lewis C Cantley at Harvard Medical School as the Amgen fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. During this time, Costas and colleagues made several groundbreaking discoveries on how metabolism is rewired in pancreatic cancer to support growth and survival. In 2013, Costas moved to Weill Cornell Medical College and was awarded a prestigious Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Pathway to Leadership award to continue pursuing his work on pancreatic cancer metabolism. This research is focused on understanding the biochemical pathways and metabolic addictions of pancreatic cancer cells and using this information to guide the design of targeted therapies.
Janice Drew, PhD, University Of Aberdeen
(United Kingdom) - Dr Drew's research is focused on identifying the molecular and cellular effects of diets associated with development of obesity and the impact on cellular defence systems and links to increased cancer risk. Comprehensive strategies have been developed incorporating transcriptomics, including the novel gene expression technology, the GenomeLab System, application to interrogation of cultured human tissue explants, whole blood gene expression profiling (bloodomics) and proteomics, together with biochemical analyses of plasma and tissue samples to assess correlated changes in immunity, inflammation, redox regulation, metabolism and DNA repair and associated pathology. This approach is revealing predictive molecular signatures of health status, pathology and dietary modulation making it feasible for nutrition scientist to contemplate monitoring and survey of the impact of diet and lifestyle factors to generate evidence for effective translation of research on food, drink and health.
Jason Locasale, PhD, Cornell University
(United States) - Jason W. Locasale, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. Dr. Locasale's research focuses on understanding metabolism in cell growth, cancer pathogenesis and therapeutic intervention. His efforts have focused on understanding the Warburg Effect, the observation that tumor cells process glucose through fermentation even when oxygen is abundant for respiration. He is currently developing biomarkers of agents that affect glucose metabolism in cancer. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Locasale made the seminal discovery that a major pathway utilized by glucose-metabolizing cancer cells involved the diversion of glycolytic flux into one-carbon metabolism through de novo serine and glycine metabolism. Dr. Locasale is currently pursuing the role this pathway in disease pathogenesis and cell transformation and this work has led him to study the interplay between metabolism, signal transduction, and epigenetics.
Mahya Mehrmohammadi, Cornell University
(United States) - Mahya Mehrmohammadi received her Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Master's degree in Biotechnology at the University of Tehrain in Iran. She is currently pursuing her Doctoral studies in the field of Genomics, Genetics and Development with Dr. Jason Locasale at Cornell University. Her thesis focuses on the role of one-carbon metabolism in cancer pathogenesis using a combination of computatoinal and experimental techniques. 
Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, Duke University
(United States) - Jeff received his B.S. from the University of Northern Iowa in Biology ('91) followed by PhD training in immunology at Stanford University in the lab of Christopher Goodnow ('96) and post-doctoral training in the lab of Craig Thompson at the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. Jeff started his lab at Duke University in 2003. The focus of his work at Duke has been on regulation of cell death pathways in immunity and more recently on how metabolic pathways influence lymphocyte fate in inflammatory diseases as well as leukemia.
Kathryn Wellen, PhD, University Of Pennsylvania
(United States) - Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology and Assistant Investigator, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. Dr Wellen's lab has recently demonstrated that acetylation of histones, and associated changes in gene expression, are responsive to glucose availability in a manner dependent on ATP-citrate lyase (ACL), a metabolic enzyme that cleaves mitochondria-derived citrate to produce acetyl-CoA in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Hence, histones can be modified in a manner responsive to nutrient availability, potentially influencing multiple chromatin-dependent processes. A major current focus of the lab is to elucidate the mechanisms through which ACL regulates acetylation and its impact on signaling and gene expression, using cancer and metabolic cell types and mouse models. A second area of interest is in understanding the role of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway in regulating metabolism and growth, and specifically how the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway is regulated in cancer cells and its impact on cancer cell growth and proliferation.
Sharanya Sivanand, MS, University Of Pennsylvania
(United States) - Sharanya Sivanand graduated with B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2009. In 2011, she received an M.S. degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. She previously worked on establishing a pre-clinical mouse model for renal cell carcinoma as an aid for drug development. Currently she is pursuing a PhD degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in exploring the impact of metabolic fluctuations on signaling pathways and epigenetic changes in cancer as well as its potential therapeutic applications.
Lee W. Jones, PhD, Duke University Medical Center
(United States) - Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, Associate Professor of Pathology, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Jones"s research program focuses on a translational approach to: (1) evaluate the cardiovascular / functional impact of cancer therapy, and efficacy of defined exercise training to prevent and/or treat dysfunction, and (2) elucidate the effects, and underlying systemic and molecular mechanisms, of defined aerobic training on tumor progression and metastatic dissemination.
Matthew G. Vander Heiden, Koch Institute, MIT
(United States) - Matthew Vander Heiden is the Howard S. and Linda B. Stern Assistant Professor in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Instructor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Vander Heiden received his MD and PhD degree from the University of Chicago. He also completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute prior to completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Vinayak Muralidhar, Koch Institute, MIT
(United States) - Vinayak Muralidhar is a medical student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School. He received undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Biology from MIT in 2006. In 2010, he received a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he earned an MSc. 
Michael A. Lea, PhD, UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School
(United States) - Dr Lea's research has been directed to an understanding of cancer growth and differentiation and has focused particularly on cancer of the liver and colon. In recent years he has investigated actions of dietary derived natural products on cancer cell proliferation and differentiation. The compounds that were studied included short-chain fatty acids, isothiocyanates, allyl sulfur compounds and polyphenolic molecules. These compounds can act through a variety of mechanisms including modification of histone side-chains, inhibition of protein kinases and anti-oxidant effects. These effects can be exerted by a number of molecules derived from fruits and vegetables.
Michael P Murphy, PhD, Medical Research Council
(United Kingdom) - Group leader, MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge. Dr Murphey's group is focused on mitochondrial radical production and redox signalling. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by mitochondria cause oxidative damage that impairs the ability of mitochondria to make ATP and to carry out their metabolic functions. They may participate also in cellular redox signalling pathways, so his team investigates how oxidative damage to mitochondria contributes to human pathologies. The group has worked out a way of targeting small bioactive molecules, such as antioxidants, to mitochondria in order to counter the effects of ROS and to examine the effects of doing so at cellular and whole animal levels. A second important aspect of their work is to determine whether and how mitochondrial ROS alters the activities of proteins in putative signalling and protective pathways by reversibly modifying the redox state of critical protein thiols in mitochondria.
Michelle Green, Duke University
(United States) - Postdoctoral Associate in the Hirschey lab at the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Duke University Medical Center. Michelle performed her undergraduate work at the University of Florida where she double majored in Chemistry and Microbiology. She then received her Ph.D. from Duke University in the laboratory of Anthony R. Means where she studied the regulation of CaMKK2 dependent signaling pathways. During her graduate work, she characterized a novel CaMKK2-AMPK signaling complex involved in the regulation of feeding behavior. In addition, she characterized the regulation of CaMKK2 by multi-site phosphorylation which is required for normal neuronal differentiation. Michelles areas of expertise include biochemistry, cell signaling and molecular biology. She has a particular interest in understanding how post-translational modifications influence protein structure, function and signaling capabilities.
Peter Pedersen, PhD, Johns Hopkins University
(United States) - Dr Pederson's laboratory is interested in cell energetics and the relationship of cell energetics to molecular medicine and disease. Both mitochondrial and glycolytic processes are being studied at the tissue, cell, and molecular level. Also, the relationship of these processes to the diseases cancer and heart disease, the two major causes of death in the U.S. are being studied with the objective of discovering and developing new therapies. Specific projects in the laboratory that are currently under investigation are (1) The structure, mechanism, and regulation of the mitochondrial ATP synthase/ATPase complex; (2) the molecular basis of cancer's most common phenotype, i.e., an elevated glucose metabolism; (3) The regulation of heart function under normal and ischemic conditions as it relates to the mitochondrial ATP synthase/ATPase complex.
Young H. Ko, PhD, KO Discovery, LLC, University Of Maryland BioPark
(United States) - Started her scientific career at Iowa State University, by studying cholesterol metabolism in the Department of Nutritional Physiology with Dr. Donald Beitz. Then, continued her education at Washington State University, Department of Biochemistry/Biophysics. Her thesis work, carried out under the direction of Dr. Bruce McFadden, focused on understanding the enzyme "Isocitrate lyase (ICL)", which is essential for the germination of plants and embryogenesis of nematodes. She was encouraged by Dr. McFadden to go to Johns Hopkins University, SOM, for her post-doctoral training and study in the laboratory of Dr. Peter L. Pedersen, Department of Biological Chemistry. Here, her research focused initially on understanding the pathogenesis of Cystic Fibrosis. During this time, she also expanded her training to the areas of cancer biology, cell bioenergetics, metabolism, and nutrition. She now has her own company at the University of Maryland BioPark that will focus on discovering anticancer and anti-aging mechanisms/interventions. 
Ralph J. DeBerardinis, MD, PhD, UT-Southwestern Medical Center
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics and attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism at Children's Medical Center. Dr DeBerardinis' lab is interested in understanding the metabolic activities that support cell survival, growth and proliferation. His group wants to understand how signal transduction impacts metabolism during states of physiological cell proliferation such as embryogenesis, tissue remodeling and activation of the immune system, and during pathological states like cancer and autoimmune diseases. They are also interested in a class of pediatric disorders called the inborn errors of metabolism which are caused by mutations that impair such metabolic pathways as the tricarboxylic acid cycle, the urea cycle, fatty acid and amino acid oxidation, and the electron transport chain.
Valter Longo, PhD, University Of Southern California
(United States) - Dr. Longo is the Director of the Longevity Institute, a Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and the Edna Jones Chair of Biogerontology. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms of aging in organisms ranging from yeast to humans. The focus is on the conserved nutrient signaling pathways that can be modulated to protect against age-dependent oxidative damage and delay or prevent diseases of aging including cancer, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. The neurobiology component of the laboratory focuses on genetic and dietary interventions to protect glial cells and neurons against oxidative stress and Alzheimer's disease. The cancer projects in the laboratory are focused on: a) dietary and genetic interventions for the differential protection and sensitization of normal and cancer cells with focus on stem cells and a variety of tumors.
Lizzia Raffaghello, G. Gaslini Institute
(Italy) - Dr. Raffaghello is a researcher at the Istituto Gaslini in Genoa, one of the leading Children's Hospital in Italy. She is an expert in studies of neuroblastoma but has published extensively on a variety of cancers focusing on both basic and translational projects. She has been a key collaborator for studies related to fasting and cancer treatment.
Evasion of Anti-growth Signalling
Dong M. Shin, MD, FACP, Emory University (United States) -
Professor of Hematology and Oncology, and Otolaryngology; Associate Director of Academic Development for Emory Winship Cancer Institute and Director of the Emory Winship Cancer Chemoprevention Program. Dr. Shin's research focus is in head, neck and lung cancers. During the past 20 his research has been in the following areas: Establishing carcinogenesis models in preclinical and clinical settings for head, neck and lung cancer; developing biomarkers in animal and human carcinogenesis for head, neck and lung cancer; developing molecular targeted prevention and therapies using epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathways (i.e., EGFR monoclonal antibodies, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors and other molecular targeted molecules including green tea polyphenons; and developing novel therapeutics (clinical or translational protocols) for head and neck cancer, lung cancer, thymoma and mesothelioma. He is also currently focused on new drug delivery to cancer patients using nanotechnology.
Click here to view entire team
A.R.M. Ruhul Amin, PhD, Emory University
(United States) - Assistant Professor, Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Amin's research aims to identify an effective mechanism to prevent the progression of premalignant lesions of the head and neck or lung to invasive cancers. Mainly he is focusing on natural dietary compounds which are safer than chemotherapy agents or targeted drugs. Recently, he has shown that a combination of green tea polyphenol EGCG and another polyphenols, luteolin, have synergistic antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo. His team is now planning to test this combination in the clinic. Dr. Amin is also interested in the chemopreventive properties of other natural compounds including curcumin and resveratrol. He is also interested in DNA damage pathways, EGFR-mediated pathways and AKT-mediated pathways.
Gazala N. Khan, MD, Josephine Ford Cancer Center, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Michigan
(United States) - Senior staff oncologist at the Josephine Ford Cancer Center. Dr. Khan's research focus lies in the clinical development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Working with the Multidisciplinary Pancreatic Cancer Clinic, Dr. Khan has designed several clinical trials using agents which target pancreatic cancer. Dr. Khan is the recipient of a "Career development Award" from the NCI/CTEP for the clinical development of a novel Notch inhibitor in pancreatic cancer.
Georgia Zhuo Chen, PhD, Emory University
(United States) - Associate Professor, Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Chen's research focuses on the metastasis of head and neck cancer, signal transduction pathways in cancer cells, prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers, anticancer therapeutic drugs for treatment of cancer, and usage of nanotechnology in cancer research and clinical application. She has established a human xenograft metastatic mouse model for head and neck cancer, which has been used in studying the biology of cancer and in the evaluation of therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. Dr. Chen is a well-trained molecular oncologist with experience in the molecular analyses of oncogene expression, gene regulation, cellular signal transduction, and using animal models for lung and head and neck cancer.
Gloria Huang M.D., Albert Einstein College Of Medicine
(United States) - Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health. Dr. Huang is a board certified gynecologic oncologist and head of a gynecologic cancer research laboratory.
Shijun Mi, PhD, Albert Einstein College Of Medicine
(United States) - 
Ho-Young Lee, PhD, Seoul National University
(Korea South) - Dr. Ho-Young Lee is a professor at College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University from 2011. She received her Ph.D. degree from College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University in 1992. Before returning to Korea, she served as a tenured professor at the Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Lee has been interested in 1) the role of the components of insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling (IGFs, IGF-1R, IR, and IGFBP-3) in the carcinogenesis and progression of lung and head and neck cancer; and 2) the drug resistance mechanisms of conventional and molecular targeted anticancer drugs in relation to tumor-tumor microenvironment interaction. She specializes in the cancer-associated signal transduction and the development of chemopreventive and combinational therapeutic strategies using molecular targeted anticancer drugs or natural products-derived compounds.
Jack L. Arbiser, MD, PhD, Emory University
(United States) -
Jin-Tang Dong, PhD, Emory University School Of Medicine
(United States) - Professor and Vice Chair for Research. Dr. Dong's group has been studying the molecular pathogenesis of human cancer with a particular interest in prostate cancer. The group has devoted significant effort to the discovery of tumor suppressor genes using a combined genetic, biochemical and functional approach. They have found several potential tumor suppressor genes including KLF5 from 13q21, ATBF1 from 16q22, FOXO1A from 13q14, and U50 from 6q14. These genes are functionally inactivated in human cancers by chromosomal deletion, mutation, and/or excess protein degradation. The group currently focuses on whether and how functional interruption of the developmental transcription factors ATBF1 and KLF5 breaks the balance between cell proliferation and differentiation in epithelial homeostasis and thus causes the development and progression of cancer. The ultimate goal of Dr. Dong's research is to discover molecular pathways that can be useful for the development of biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
Jorg Reichrath, Dept. Of Dermatology, Saarland University
(Germany) - Dr Reichrath is Professor for Dermatology and Deputy Director of the Clinic for Dermatology, Allergology and Venerology at the Saarland University Hospital in Homburg/Saar (Germany). His main research interests include dermato-endocrinology, photobiology, molecular oncology, dermato-histopathology, nutrigenomics and epigenetics.
Omer Kucuk, MD, Emory University
(United States) - Professor of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Urology. Dr. Kucuk is a medical oncologist with a major interest in nutrition and cancer prevention. He conducted the first clinical trials to show the benefits of soy and lycopene supplements in prostate cancer treatment. He has published extensively on various nutrients in combination with chemotherapy and radiation. Dr. Kucuk has been conducting clinical trials with lycopene and soy isoflavones in combination with standard therapy for prostate cancer since 1996. He is also investigating the effects of micronutrients and phytochemicals on biomarkers of cell growth, differentiation, metastasis, inflammation and oxidative stress in a variety of cancers.
Phillip Karpowicz, PhD, Harvard Medical School
(United States) - Dr Karpowicz is a research fellow within the Laboratory of Norbert Perrimon in the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is interested in the adhesion of stem cells, as his doctoral work involved the study of Type 1 Cadherins in mammalian neural stem cells. He is currently studying the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway which is thought to be mediated by the atypical Cadherins, Fat and Dachsous
Rita Nahta, PhD, Emory University
(United States) - Assistant Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, and the Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr Nahta focuses on the biological and therapeutic implications of growth factor signaling crosstalk in breast cancer. Significant advances in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer include the development of therapies targeted against specific cancer-causing molecules. However, the success of these mono-targeted therapies is often limited by cross-talk between multiple signaling pathways. Dr Nahta is specifically interested in understanding how cross-talk between HER2 and other growth factor signaling pathways affects the biology of HER2-overexpressing breast cancers, including how signaling cross-talk promotes resistance to targeted therapies.
Thomas Carey, PhD, The University Of Michigan
(United States) - Director, Cell Biology and Immunology Laboratory. In Dr Carey's cancer laboratory the group is working to identify biomarkers of head and neck tumors and patient factors that determine response to therapy in organ sparing (i.e. non-surgical) treatment approaches. The lab has shown that p53 status and expression when combined with Bcl-xL expression can identify low, intermediate and high risk larynx tumors for response to induction chemotherapy and probability of avoiding laryngectomy. Similarly these same markers identify oropharynx tumors that are most likely to respond to organ sparing treatment and those that are least likely to respond. These categories also determine probability of survival among oropharynx cancer patients. The lab is now designing studies to understand how adverse biomarkers can be overcome and they are using biomarker analysis to design new therapeutic studies to assign patients to the most appropriate therapy for their tumor.
Genetic Instability
Lynnette Ferguson, DPhil, DSc, The University Of Auckland (New Zealand) -
Professor at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre and the Head of the Department Nutrition Department in the School of Medical Sciences at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. Dr Ferguson's current research considers the interplay between genes and diet in the development of chronic disease, with particular focus on inflammatory bowel disease and prostate cancer
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Alan Meeker, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine
(United States) - Dr. Meeker performed his graduate work at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, under the mentorship of Dr. Donald Coffey, receiving a PhD in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology for work done on abnormal telomere biology in prostate cancer. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Angelo De Marzo at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Meeker was appointed to the faculty in the Department of Pathology, where he is currently an Assistant Professor, with joint appointments in the departments of Oncology and Urology. The Meeker lab is focused on abnormal telomere biology in cancer, with additional interests in cancer biomarkers and anti-cancer therapeutics. Dr. Meeker is also the head of the IHC/ISH core facility and co-director of the cellular imaging facility in the Johns Hopkins Oncology department.
Andrew Collins, PhD, ScD, University Of Oslo
(Norway) - Dr Collin's early research was focused on molecular mechanisms of DNA repair in mammalian cells, and in particular the manipulation of repair with the use of DNA synthesis inhibitors, which allowed identification of mutant phenotypes and analysis of the kinetics of repair. He then developed an interest in oxidative damage to DNA, and the ability of phytochemicals to protect against this damage, pioneering a molecular epidemiological approach using the comet assay to measure DNA damage in lymphocytes from human subjects. In his in Oslo, they have carried out numerous human intervention studies, looking at the effects of natural antioxidants, and plant foods rich in antioxidants, on levels of DNA damage in lymphocytes. The lab has demonstrated in most cases a significant protection against DNA oxidation. Recently the group have also demonstrated enhanced DNA repair activity following dietary supplementation with fruits.
Carl Smythe, PhD, University Of Sheffield
(United Kingdom) - Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield. Chromosomes in eukaryotes control their environment to ensure that genomic integrity is maximised. Dr Smythe's lab is interested in understanding mechanisms of genomic integrity operating at the molecular and cellular level, and determining the consequences when they fail.
Christopher Maxwell, PhD, University Of British Columbia
(Canada) - Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics. Dr Maxwell's lab is focused on understand the biology that underlies the growth, metastasis, and genomic instability of carcinoma cells and to act on that knowledge with targeted small molecule drugs. His expertise is in the study of mechanisms for mitotic spindle assembly, migration, and cell polarity focusing on centrosome dynamics.
Helen Chen, University Of British Columbia
(Canada) - Graduate Student, University of British Columbia. Helen is interested in the proteins that oversee the construction and stability of the mitotic spindle, which is an apparatus that must be successfully built each time that a cell divides. By learning more about this process, Helen hopes to understand how this process is disrupted in cancer.
Damia Giovanna, MD, Mario Negri Institute
(Italy) - Chief of the DNA Repair Unit at the Mario Negri Institute. Her main fields of interest are: mechanisms of action of anticancer drugs, cell cycle checkpoints and natural compounds
David Sidransky, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine
(United States) - Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Oncology, Pathology, Cellular & Molecular Medicine and Urology, Director, Head and Neck Cancer Research and Principal Investigator, Johns Hopkins Head and Neck Cancer SPORE. His laboratory concentrates on identifying new genetic changes in smoking-associated tumors including lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and bladder cancer. They also investigate the molecular epidemiology of smoking-induced cancers and the link between tobacco smoke and mutations of critical oncogenes. Two recent discoveries are now driving their basic research - p63, a p53 family member, is commonly amplified in SCC and drives cancer progression. Also BRAF mutations are in 70 percent of thyroid tumors, so the lab is identifying downstream signaling mechanisms for BRAF and are working with new BRAF inhibitors for targeted molecular therapy.
Santanu Dasgupta, The University Of Texas Health Science Center At Tyler, Texas
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Biology, The UT Health Science Center at Tyler, Texas. Dr. Dasgupta's laboratory is focused on developing early detection and monitoring strategies in Breast and Head and Neck Cancer. 
Eddy S. Yang, MD, PhD, University Of Alabama-Birmingham
(United States) - Assistant Professor. Many cancer therapies attack cellular DNA to cause DNA damage. The DNA double strand break is the most critical form of DNA damage that induces both normal and cancer cell death if left unrepaired. Dr Yang's research interests involve the targeting of DNA repair pathways to enhance the therapeutic ratio. His lab aims to discover novel strategies to augment DNA repair pathways to specifically protect normal cells from DNA damage while reducing DNA repair capacity to convert cancer cells to become more susceptible to DNA damaging agents. Ultimately, his lab hopes to translate our work into the clinic to differentially treat cancer while sparing normal cells to maintain quality of life.
Phuoc T. Tran, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, and Urology. Dr. Tran focuses his studies on the transitions between epithelial and mesenchymal cellular states and the implications of these transitions for tumorigenesis, cancer treatment resistance and radiation-induced fibrosis primarily through the use of inducible transgenic mouse models and non-invasive rodent imaging. One of these transitions known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition is a conserved developmental program that when inappropriately activated in post-natal life has been associated with organ fibrosis, tumorigenesis and metastasis. Clinically Dr. Tran treats patients with cancers of the genitourinary system and uses stereotactic radiation techniques (such as SRS and SBRT/SABR) for the treatment of patients with oligometastatic disease.
Rodney E Shackelford, DO, PhD, Tulane Medical School
(United States) -
Sarallah Rezazadeh, Department Of Molecular Diagnosis And Research, Booali Medical Laboratory
(Iran) - Sarallah Rezazadeh finished his BSc in cell and molecular biology in Kharazmi University, Tehran-Iran. He later obtained MSc from department of genetics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow-Russia. since 2010 Sarallah Rezazadeh is working as technical manager at department of virology, and head of department of molecular diagnosis and research at Booali specialized medical laboratory, Qom-Iran.Currently, he is working on viral hepatitis (HBV,HCV).
Satya Prakash, PhD, McGill University
(Canada) - Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Member, Artificial Cells and Organs Research Centre, Associate Member, Physiology. The primary research interest of Dr Prakash's laboratory is in several innovative areas of artificial cells, microencapsulation, cell therapy, tissue engineering, nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, biomaterials, drug delivery, bacterial cell therapy, medical device engineering, and other biomedical technology developments. The research is focused on the development of new medical treatment strategies including novel cell and drug-based therapies.
Meenakshi Malhotra, PhD, McGill University
(Canada) - PhD graduate from Dr. Prakash's Lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University. Her main interest is to design and develop non-invasive nanoparticles for siRNA delivery to animal models of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. 
Thomas Ried, MD, National Institutes Of Health
(United States) - The general theme of the Reid laboratory is to understand the role of genomic instability and associated gene expression changes during cancer development. Towards this goal, the lab studys models of human tumorigenesis and relevant mouse models with a variety of genomic technologies, including comparative genomic hybridization, spectral karyotyping (SKY), gene expression profiling, quantitative real time PCR and proteomic methodologies. Dr Reid's translational research is focused on exploring aneuploidy as a molecular marker for cancer diagnostics in routine cytological preparations, and to identify gene expression signatures that assist in disease prognosis and rational cancer therapy.
Immune System Evasion
Byoung S. Kwon, PhD, National Cancer Center (Korea South) -
Endowed Investigator in the Division of Cell and Immunobiology, R&D Center for Cancer Therapeutics, National Cancer Center Goyang , Republic of Korea and Professor of the Department of Medicine at Tulane University, in New Orleans, LA, USA. Dr Kwon's research interests include communication network of immune cells and he has published extensively on immunotherapy against cancers and autoimmune diseases.
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Elizabeth Ryan, PhD, Colorado State University
(United States) - Dr. Ryan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University. Her research is currently focused on immune modulation and anti-cancer activity of bioactive components in rice bran. She evaluates genetically diverse rice cultivars from around the world. In addition to mouse studies and human trials, she is developing the canine cancer model to investigate alternative medicine modalities during cancer treatment as a new scope of research at the CSU Animal Cancer Center. The hope is to expand and develop evidence-based research on complementary and alternative medicines that include phytochemically rich foods in oncology by using highly translational, naturally occurring cancers in companion animals. Phytochemicals from rice bran, beans, fermented Chinese tea, and milk thistle are the medicinal plants currently under investigation for their affects on modulating tumor metabolism
Emanuela Signori, PhD, Institute Of Translational Pharmacology (IFT)
(Italy) - Dr Signori is Researcher at CNR (IFT) Laboratory of Molecular Pathology and Experimental Oncologyand Acting Professor of General Pathology at University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, School of Medicine. The aim of the research group is to develop translational molecular medicine to pass from bench to bedside. The laboratory is currently focused on the identification of biomarkers and therapeutic molecules and on electrogene and electrochemotherapy transfer protocols in animal models of human diseases. In particular molecular pathology mechanisms, antigens, proteins and genes directly involved in some tumour, infectious and inflammatory diseases are investigated, in order to identify new therapeutic genes and molecules as biomarkers for diagnostic and follow-up purposes, and to develop innovative strategies for their therapeutic administration such as electrogene transfer by naked DNA and electrochemotherapy.
Eyad Elkord, PhD, Universities Of Salford And Manchester
(United Kingdom) - Dr Elkord is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science & Immunology (University of Salford), Assistant Professor of Immunology (United Arab Emirates University), and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Institutes of Cancer and Cardivascular Sciences ( University of Manchester). Dr Elkord's lab is interested in translational and clinical research in the field of biological, immune and gene therapy of cancer. The group investigates the mechanisms employed by tumours to evade immune-mediated destruction with special interest and focus on the role and function of immunosuppressive cells (T regulatory cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells) in cancer.
Graham Pawelec, PhD, University Of Tübingen
(Germany) -
Graham Pawelec is Professor of Experimental Immunology at the Center for Medical Research, Second Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tübingen Medical School, Tübingen, Germany. He is a Visiting Professor, Nottingham Trent University, UK, and holds an Honorary Chair at Manchester University, UK. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of “Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy” and Deputy Editor of the “Journal of Translational Medicine”. Research interests are currently centered on alterations to immunity, especially T cell-mediated immunity, in cancer and ageing in humans, and the influence these have on the outcome of vaccination. He is the founder of the Society for Progress in Vaccination against Cancer (PIVAC), see http://www.tati-group.de/pivac/ and has coordinated two European Union collaborative programs on cancer vaccine research (EUCAPS, ESTDAB).
Graham Pawelec is Professor of Experimental Immunology at the Center for Medical Research, Second Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tübingen Medical School, Tübingen, Germany. He is a Visiting Professor, Nottingham Trent University, UK, and holds an Honorary Chair at Manchester University, UK. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of “Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy” and Deputy Editor of the “Journal of Translational Medicine”. Research interests are currently centered on alterations to immunity, especially T cell-mediated immunity, in cancer and ageing in humans, and the influence these have on the outcome of vaccination. He is the founder of the Society for Progress in Vaccination against Cancer (PIVAC), see http://www.tati-group.de/pivac/ and has coordinated two European Union collaborative programs on cancer vaccine research (EUCAPS, ESTDAB).
John Stagg, PhD, University Of Montreal
(Canada) - Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy. Dr. Stagg's research is focused on the development of new treatments based on the stimulation of anti-tumor immune response, for example, via protein CD73 as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The lab has demonstrated, among other things, that the breast cancer cells over-express CD73 protein and that this contributes to the development of breast cancer by inhibiting the functions of anti-tumor CD8 + immune system. The lab is now studying the possibility of blocking the CD73 protein for therapeutic purposes using a monoclonal antibody molecule. Dr Stagg's lab also studies the immunological mechanisms involved in the treatment of breast cancer with monoclonal antibodies Herceptin (anti-ErbB-2), anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4.
Prof.R.H.SINGH, Distinguished Professor, Deptt. Of Kayachikitsa, Institute Of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005
(India) -
Richard L. Whelan, MD, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia U. Affiliate
(United States) - Professor of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chief of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Service as well as the Chief of Surgical Oncology at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital since July 2009. Dr. Whelan is interested in perioperative (month prior and month immediately following cancer surgery) anti-cancer therapy. He has done murine studies and completed 1 human Phase 1 study (second in progress) testing phytochemicals and immunomodulators, and is engaged in a Phase 1 trial that involves EGCG and siliphos (milk thistle). He is also interested in surgery's impact on plasma composition as regards angiogenesis.
Terry Lichtor, MD, PhD, Rush University Medical Center
(United States) - Dr Lichtor's research interests are focused on the use of gene therapy strategies in the development of antitumor vaccines for the treatment of brain tumors. He is involved in a project concerning the development of MRI methods to non-invasively measure intracranial pressure.
Tetsuro Sasada, MD, PhD , Kurume University
(Japan) -
Vinay S. Dass , PhD, Tulane University
(United States) -
Wamidh H Talib, Faculty Of Pharmacy, University Of Applied Science
(Jordan) - Assistant Professor of Immunology at the University of Applied Science in Jordan. Dr. Talib research interests include: Integrative cancer therapies, anticancer nutrition, monoclonal antibodies production, and extracting and testing anticancer agents from natural products. He is currently engaged in a project to test a combination of immunotherapy and bacteriolytic therapy to treat solid tumors in mice.
William K Decker, PhD, Baylor College Of Medicine
(United States) - Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology. Dr Decker's research has focused upon dendritic cell regulation of the Th-1 immune response, and his work has demonstrated that dendritic cells possess the ability to compare MHC class I and class II antigenic sequences via a novel regulatory complex involving tRNA molecules and their associated tRNA synthetases. He has also focused upon the soluble signaling mediators used by these so-called "Th-1" dendritic cells to mediate cellular immune responses. He is currently engaged in translating these basic discoveries into viable therapeutic regimens for the treatment of neoplastic disease
Replicative Immortality
Paul Yaswen, PhD, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (United States) -
Dr Yaswen's lab studies pathways that govern proliferative potential in human epithelial stem and progenitor cells. While the p16INK4A gene is best known for its role in tumor suppression, it also plays a role in stem cell commitment. His group has shown that the repressive effect of p16 on hTERT (encoding the catalytic subunit of telomerase), can be dissociated from the repressive effect of p16 on genes required for cell cycle progression, raising the possibility that a heirarchy of p16 functions exist, and that p16-associated senescence is an aberrant differentiation response to internal or external stresses. Telomerase expression is critical for the unlimited proliferative potential of human stem cells, but is repressed in most other lineage restricted and differentiated somatic cells, probably as a mechanism for tumor suppression. His group studies the regulation of telomerase expression in human epithelial cells cultured in physiologically relevant microenvironments.
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Amancio Carnero, PhD, IBIS/HUVR/CSIC/Univ Sevilla
(Spain) - Head of Lab, Biomedical Institute of Seville/CSIC. Current research focuses on the identification of new genes involved in cancer, its characterization and traslation to clinic, and the identification and validation of new targets for anticancer drug discovery. The work involves Molecular and cellular biology, genetically ingeeniered mouse models, molecular pathology and traslational studies.
Ander Matheu, PhD, Biodonostia Institute
(Spain) - Dr Matheu has worked extensively studying the function of p53 and Ink4a/Arf locus in senescence, cancer and ageing. More recently, he decided to investigate the role that stem cells, mainly from the central nervous system, have in cancer and ageing processes. He focused in the function that SOX proteins, well known for their function regulating stem cells activity, have in development, cancer and aging.
Francis Rodier, PhD, Universite De Montreal
(Canada) - Assistant professor in the department of Radiology, Radio-oncology and Nuclear Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Rodier's laboratory is established at the CRCHUM (UdM hospital research center) and Institut du Cancer de Montreal. His research program dissects the impact of cellular senescence and DNA damage responses during cancer progression and cancer therapy using human cell culture models and cancer tissue banks.
Gary L. Firestone, PhD, University Of California At Berkeley
(United States) - The overall goal of Dr Firestone's lab to characterize the cell signaling pathways that inhibit the uncontrolled growth of epithelial-derived tumor cells, the cell type of most human cancers and develop preclinical strategies that can potentially be used to design new anti-cancer therapeutics. Molecular, biochemical, cell biological and physiological experimental strategies are being utilized to explore the mechanisms by which extracellular signals (such as steroid hormones, growth factors and certain dietary and nondietary phytochemicals) coordinately regulate the proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration and cell-cell interactions of human cancer cells. In addition, the lab has been involved in a clinical collaboration, and has recently established that certain human mammary epithelial cancer cells can be converted into a phenotype with stem cell-like properties that becomes highly sensitive to the apoptotic effects of dietary indoles.
Jiyue Zhu, PhD, Pennsylvania State University College Of Medicine
(United States) - Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Dr Zhu's laboratory studies the epigenetic and chromatin regulation of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene, which plays critical roles in stem cell self-renewal, aging, and cancer. Whereas telomerase mutations causes premature aging, its activation leads to limitless cell proliferation, a hallmark of all cancers. The ongoing projects focus on the identification of epigenetic elements and regulatory proteins involved in telomerase regulation during stem cell differentiation, nuclear reprogramming, and tumorigenesis, using models of normal and cancer cells, adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and transgenic mice.
Karen L. MacKenzie, PhD, Children's Cancer Institute Australia
(Australia) - Group Leader at Children's Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA) and conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Dr. MacKenzie's research is focused on the molecular mechanisms that underlie the unlimited replicative capacity (immortality) of cancer cells, and the exploitation of these mechanisms as therapeutic targets. Since toxicity to normal cells is one of the most serious limitations of current chemotherapy, an important aspect of her investigations is defining the function and regulation of these pathways in normal cells, particularly vulnerable populations of hematopoietic cells. A specific focus of her research over the past decade has been on the regulation and function of the immortalising enzyme telomerase in cancer development and normal hematopoiesis.
Nicol Keith, PhD, University Of Glasgow
(United Kingdom) - Professor of Molecular Oncology (Experimental Therapeutics) and group leader for the Telomerase Therapeutics Group. Professor Keith's research is focused on the development of novel therapeutics that target cellular senescence and telomerase. The approach is based on integrating within a bioinformatic framework a wide variety of external and in-house data sources with high content screening technologies to deconvolute immortalisation/senescence signalling pathways and build a network of genes for target and biomarker discovery.
Alan Bilsland PhD, University Of Glasgow
(United Kingdom) - Dr Bilsland is a Senior scientist at University of Glasgow. His research interests focus on the development of novel cancer therapeutics through systems biology approaches. 
Patricia Hentosh, ScD, Old Dominion University
(United States) - Professor, Medical Diagnostic and Translational Sciences. Dr. Hentosh’s laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of action of plant-derived isoprenoids, specifically perillyl alcohol. Although structurally very simple, perillyl alcohol acts on translational processes in a similar but distinct fashion as does rapamycin through modulation of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. Recently the lab established that low concentrations of either perillyl alcohol or rapamycin rapidly suppressed telomerase activity in human prostate tumor cells. Loss of telomerase activity was due in part to decreased human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) protein levels, but with no effect on hTERT mRNA. Both compounds also act post-translationally to attenuate telomerase activity by disrupting interactions of a multi-protein complex of hTERT-mTOR-RAPTOR that also includes Hsp90, S6 Kinase and 4E-BP1. Further, current studies demonstrate a strong inhibitory effect of perillyl alcohol and rapamycin on prostate cancer cell migration and invasion and on matrix metalloproteinase activity.
Tabetha Sundin, PhD, MB (ASCP), Old Dominion University
(United States) - My graduate and post-doctoral work focused on cancer signal transduction. Specifically, we examined how telomerase was linked to the mTOR pathway. We determined isoprenoids found in fruits and vegetables could inhibit mTOR and therefore telomerase by disrupting an mTOR protein complex. We further assessed the role of eIF4E in the inhibition of mTOR. We found that cancer cells alter their mTOR signal transduction pathways, making themselves sensitive to isoprenoid-mediated inhibition. During my post-doctoral work we inspected how invasion and migration of cancer cells were affected by isoprenoid-mediated inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)- 2 and -9. Currently I run a molecular diagnostics and serology laboratory in a clinical setting.
Resistance to Apoptosis
Ramzi Mohammad, Ph.D., Karmanos Cancer Institute Wayne State University (United States) -
Professor, Department of Oncology and Director of GI Research. Dr. Mohammad's research is translational and through close work with clinicians he has introduced several experimental drugs into the clinic including Bryostatin-1, Aurastatin-PE, Dolastatin-10 and cambertastatin-4 and small molecule inhibitors of Bcl-2 such as AT-101 (gossypol) and HMD2. His lab has new BH3-mimetic small molecule inhibitor that disarms anti-apoptotic Bcl2-family proteins. They have also established mouse xenograft models from pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and lymphoma and leukemia, facilitating studies of drug efficacy and mechanism of action in vivo. Currently, his lab is investigating several SMIs including novel HDM2 inhibitors and Mcl-1 inhibitors. Dr. Mohammad has more than 25 years of cancer research experience, with extensive experience in molecular biology, animal models and tissue culture. He has established a number of pancreatic cancer and other hematological malignancies cell lines and was among the first to establish pancreatic orthotopic models.
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Abbas K. Samadi, PhD, Content Development Division, Pathway Genomics, San Diego, CA
(United States) - Dr. Samadi studies the role of genotype-phonotype association in cancer pharmacogenomics. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have emerged as genetic markers and have been used for fine mapping cancer loci and for cancer treatment efficacy and toxicity. These data are also utilized for biomarker assay development. Another area of research includes the use of natural products to study modulation signal transduction network and apoptosis pathways in animal cancer models.
Asfar S. Azmi, PhD, Wayne State University, Karmanos Cancer Institute
(United States) - Research Scientist in the Department of Pathology, Wayne State University with a track-record of cancer research. His broad research interest is focused on understanding the role of p53 in liquid and solid tumors especially on pancreatic and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His research has been directed towards the computational design and development of small molecule anti-cancer (SMI) drugs. He has worked extensively on developing SMIs against Bcl-2, Mcl-1, CRM1 and MDM2. Dr. Azmi has utilized cutting edge systems and network sciences to understand drug targets and combination drug signatures. These studies have helped in the development of novel combinations of small molecule drugs such as AT-101 (an advanced Bcl-2 inhibitor) that is currently in 21 different clinical trials. Dr. Azmi has published more than 80 peer reviewed articles, edited numerous thematic issues, authored a number of editorials and has edited a book on Systems Biology for Springer.
Carmela Fimognari, PhD, University Of Bologna- Department Of Pharmacology
(Italy) - Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Bologna in Italy. Dr Fimognari has expertise in both toxicology and pharmacology. Her work in toxicology involves investigations into critical cellular and molecular events related to carcinogenesis induced by exposure to xenobiotics (drugs, phytochemicals, pesticides, etc.) and the study of the risk of cancer in exposed populations by using biomarkers of effect. Her current research activity is focused on the study of natural compounds as new anticancer drugs and characterizing their mechanisms of action in different cell models (in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo models) as well as the preclinical development of phytochemicals.
Clement G. Yedjou, PhD, Jackson State University
(United States) - Dr. Yedjou is currently a Professor at Jackson State University. He has a strong concentration in the field of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Cellomics and Toxicogenomics Research Laboratory and Molecular Toxicology. His current research focuses on the preclinical assessment of physiologic doses of ascorbic acid in combination with pharmacologic dose of arsenic trioxide (Trisenox) for the management of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and other malignancies; basic and translational studies of ascorbic acid and arsenic trioxide effects on tumor metastasis; the role of host immune system in ascorbic acid treatment; the mechanisms of action of ascorbic acid when combined with arsenic trioxide for the treatment of APL patients; the preclinical assessment of vernonia amygdalina leaf extracts as anti-cancer agent in the management of human breast cancer.
D. James Morre, PhD, Purdue University
(United States) -
Dr. Helen M Coley, PhD, University Of Surrey
(United Kingdom) - Dr. Coley graduated with honours from the University of Surrey with a BSc in biochemistry and toxicology. She went on to study in the Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapeutics Unit, University of Cambridge and gained her PhD in the area of anticancer drug resistance. From there she went to the Mario Negri Institute in Milan to work on a European Communities Cancer Research Fellowship. Helen Coley returned to the UK to work at the Institute of Cancer Research in the area of drug development with work on methylmelamines. She followed this with drug resistance studies on soft tissue sarcomas in collaboration with Ian Judson. Dr. Coley is now a Faculty member at the University of Surrey Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences where she heads up undergraduate teaching in cancer studies. Her research focuses on new cancer drug development and anticancer drug resistance mechanisms, particularly in breast and ovarian cancers.
Gian Luigi Russo, PhD, Institute Of Food Sciences, National Research Council
(Italy) - Dr. Russo is the Senior Research Scientist at ISA, Institute of Food Sciences, National Research Council in Avellino, Italy. He is also the Head of Diet & Human Health divisionand responsible for the Food Chemoprevention unit. His expertise is in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology and his research is focused on cell division cycle control and apoptosis in human cancer, with an emphasis on the regulative role of protein phosphorylation. His investigations are focused on how several phytochemicals present in the regular diet prevent, block or retard tumour formation. The goal is to discriminate between a general antioxidant activity associated to phytochemicals and their ability to specifically trigger cell arrest or cell death in cancer cells.
Carmela Spagnuolo, PhD, Institute Of Food Sciences, National Research Council
(Italy) - Dr. Spagnuolo is a PostDoc at ISA, Institute of Food Sciences, National Research Council in Avellino, Italy. Her interest is mainly directed to the study of natural compounds (food extracts and pure molecules) with healthy effects on human such as chemopreventive, neuroprotective and antioxidant activities. 
Hsue-Yin Hsu, PhD, Department Of Life Sciences, Tzu Chi University
(Taiwan) - Autophagy has been recognized as the major causal factor for the acquired resistance in cancer treatment. Inhibition of autophagy as well as cell survival signaling pathways promotes cell death, whereas autophagy may paradoxically enhance the cell death induced by anti-cancer agents. Prof. Hsue-Yin Hsu is currently at Tzu Chi University, Taiwan, in the Department of Life Sciences. Her primary area of expertise is in tumor angiogenesis, drug resistance and cellular redox homeostasis by using small molecules to develop new strategies for cancer treatment.
Liang-Tzung Lin, Department Of Microbiology And Immunology, Taipei Medical University
(Taiwan) - Dr. Liang-Tzung Lin received his undergraduate and graduate training in Canada and previously worked as a postdoc at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, Halifax, Canada. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. He is interested in the anti-cancer effects of natural products-derived small molecules and is also exploring how certain viruses induce cancers. 
Markus David Siegelin, MD, Columbia University Medical Center
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University. He received his MD degree from Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. Thereafter, he pursued training in clinical Neurology and Neuropathology at Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany. In addition, he completed training in Anatomic Pathology at Columbia University Medical Center. His current research focuses on therapy resistant cancers, and Dr. Siegelin is investigating novel potential treatment regimens by unraveling concepts and mechanisms that are pivotal to bypass primary and secondary apoptotic resistance of tumors.
Nagi B Kumar, PhD, RD, FADA, Moffitt Cancer Center
(United States) - Director, Cancer Chemoprevention/Professor Oncologic Sciences. Dr Kumar is funded by the National Cancer Institute and Department of Defense, and she has served as the PI of several chemoprevention trials using botanicals and biologics targeting high risk and cancer patient populations.
Q. Ping Dou, PhD, Wayne State University
(United States) - Professor at the Karmanos Cancer Instittue. Dr. Dou's laboratory is focused on the discoverery of molecular targets of natural products in pre-clinical studies, followed by validation in targeted cancer intervention clinical trials. Dr. Dou's laboratory is one of the first to report that proteasome inhibitors rapidly induce tumor cell apoptosis, selectively activate the cell death program in oncogene-transformed, but not normal or untransformed cells, and are able to trigger apoptotic death in human cancer cells that are resistant to various anticancer agents. Dr. Dou's laboratory has also shown that some tea polyphenols and medicinal compounds potently and specifically inhibit the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome in vitro and in vivo at physiological concentrations.
Swapan K. Ray, University Of South Carolina School Of Medicine
(United States) - The research interests of Dr Ray's laboratory include the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis of malignant diseases such as glioblastoma, neuroblastoma, and Ewing's sarcoma and also neurodegenerative disorders such as spinal cord injury, brain ischemia, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, amyotropic lateral sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis and development of novel therapeutic strategies for their treatments.
Sustained Proliferative Signalling
Mark Feitelson, PhD, Temple University (United States) -
Professor in the Department of Biology and Co-Director of the Temple University Biotechnology Center at Temple since 2007, Dr Feitelson focuses his research on the hepatitis B and C viruses and their role in engendering liver cancer. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is among the most common infections in the world, affecting approximately 2 billion people (mostly in developing countries in Asia and Africa). In effect, the hepatitis B and C viruses cause their host cells to acquire the quick growth and resistance to immune elimination characteristics of cancer cells in the course of promoting their own survival. Liver cancer itself often follows. The current model for managing aggressively mutating viral infections is combination therapies, or "drug cocktails." Feitelson has formed strong ties with the HBV research community in China where HBV-associated diseases are a national priority.
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Aditi Gupta, PhD, University Of Maryland
(United States) - Research Associate at the Department of Orthopaedics, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta's research activity is focused on the signal transduction pathway in osteoarthiritis. She has also worked in the field of prostate cancer invasion and bone metastasis.
Alla Arzumanyan, PhD, Temple University
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Biology. Dr. Arzumanyan received her Ph.D. from Yerevan State University, Armenia, in 2003 in Biotechnology. After coming to the U.S., she received postdoctoral training at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), Philadelphia, in molecular and cell biology, where she specialized in studying the relationship between ethanol and embryonic stem cell fate. Based upon her expertise in stem cell biology, Dr. Arzumanyan was recruited to Temple University, Philadelphia, where she was able to demonstrate that hepatitis B virus (HBV) promoted the development of stemness in the liver of patients who developed hepatocellular carcinoma. Her work has also highlighted the importance of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in HBV associated hepatocarcinogenesis, and that inhibition of Hh partially blocked the ability of HBV to promote tumor development and progression.
Dipali Sharma, PhD, Johns Hopkins University
(United States) - Associate professor of oncology. Dr Sharma's lab is investigating the molecular links between obesity and cancer, emphasizing aspects that have potential clinical significance. Her studies on obesity-related hormones, adipocytokines, show that leptin promotes the proliferative response and metastatic potential as well as modulates the expression of various genes involved in cell cycle, apoptosis and metastasis. Her lab is exploring the genes, molecules, hormones and cellular processes that could cause and promote cancer in obese people. Using various physiologically relevant mouse models and cell lines, their aim is to find molecular targets that can be disrupted to break the obesity-cancer axis. They are also exploring new strategies to disrupt obesity-cancer connection using novel small molecule inhibitors as well as bioactive food components.
Neeraj K. Saxena, University Of Maryland
(United States) - 
Isidro Sanchez-Garcia, PhD, Cancer Research Center, Spanish Research Council (CSIC)
(Spain) - Senior Staff Scientist. Isidro's research interest is in the study of cancer development and its relationship with stem cells, with a view to improving our understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of cancer. This work has allowed the establishment of a pioneer relationship between stem cells and cancer. Isidro's research group hopes its investigations will result not only in new concepts in cancer biology and development, but will also provide the basis for the development of both a new strategy in cancer therapy and new methods for assessing treatment efficacy.
Maria L Martinez-Chantar, CIC BioGUNE
(Spain) - Maria Luz Martínez Chantar is PhD in Biological Sciences from the Autónoma University of Madrid. She worked at Biochemie-Zentrum (Heidelberg University, Germany) and at the Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley (USA). In 2005, she joined the Cooperative Research Centre-CIC bioGUNE as a group leader of the Metabolomics Unit with the main objective of studying the unique biological features of the Hepatocellular Carcinoma, with an emphasis on the alterations in liver metabolism and potential therapeutical approaches.
Maria Marino, PhD, University Roma Tre
(Italy) - Professor of Physiology. 1984-Grant from Wellcome Italian Research at University and Medical School, Nottingam (UK). 1999-Visiting Professor c/o Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA. Her research activity is principally focused on the post-receptor modifications of signal transduction pathways triggered by hormones and growth factors (estrogen, androgen, insulin, EGF) driving cell to the cell cycle progression and differentiation. Dr Marino is a member of several societies including Endocrine Society and European Endocrine Society. She is in the Editorial Board of Gen Nutr, Immunol, Endo Metabol Agent Med Chem, and Frontiers Membrane Physiol Biophys. She serves as peer review of several journal including Nature Cancer, Carcinogenesis, J Mol Endo. She is co-author of more than 109 papers including 14 reviews and 4 book chapters.
Neetu Singh, PhD, Chhatrapati Sahuji Mahara Medical University, Lucknow
(India) - Presently, standardizing the SOPs for isolation/characterization and cryo-preservation of Dental Pulp Mesenchymal Stem cells/Bone Marrow for Stem Cell Banking. Moreover, working on transplantation of Neonatal Rat Olfactory Ensheathing cells in Rat Spinal Cord Injury Model. Member of the Task Force of “Halifax Project” and writing review on “Sustained proliferation in Cancer” as well “The Biomarker and Diruptor validation”. Exhaustively, I have also worked in the area of breast cancer, which involves the synergism of Resveratrol/Curcumin with Cyclophosphamide/Centchroman, in the amelioration of Breast Cancer Cells/Explants. Through clinical samples demonstrated involvement of Low Penetrance/Base Excision Repair gene polymorphisms in the disease. Recently exploring the implications of Human Cytochrome P450 1B1 in Centchroman-Mediated MCF-7 Tumor Cell Metabolism. Also devised in vitro methods for quantifying antioxidants in herbal samples; Short term organ culture for testing the activity of Mucolytics and uptake of radiolabelled saccharide moieties.
Panagiotis J. Vlachostergios, MD, University Of Thessaly School Of Medicine, University Hospital Of Larissa
(Greece) - Dr. Vlachostergios received his medical degree from University of Thessaly, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine in 2007. He has worked as a Clinical Study Assistant and Research Associate at the Department of Medical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly. He is ECFMG-certified and has completed Internal Medicine Residency training in Greece. He is currently finalizing his Ph.D. in the role of ubiquitin-proteasome system in MGMT-related resistance to temozolomide in glioblastoma. His research interests also include neuropeptide signaling and hypoxia in prostate cancer, and cancer cachexia in lung cancer.
Randall F Holcombe, MD, Mount Sinai School Of Medicine
(United States) - Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Director of Clinical Cancer Affairs. Dr Holcombe has extensive experience in the conduct of clinical trials and is involved directly in clinical care and research for patients with colorectal cancer and other GI malignancies. Dr. Holcombe also serves as Director of the Ruttenberg Treatment Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Director of GI Medical Oncology and Deputy Director for the Tisch Cancer Institute. A leading authority in colon cancer, Dr. Holcombe has broad experience ranging from basic science and translational research to clinical trials and patient care. His focus since 1997 has been on the signaling of a protein called Wnt and its role in colon cancer development and progression. Most recently, his laboratory has begun examining the clinical effects of a naturally-derived compound called resveratrol on the prevention or treatment of colon cancer.
Rob Kulathinal, PhD, Temple University
(United States) - Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Principal Investigator. Dr. Kulathinal's research focuses on how natural processes such as selection and drift generates the molecular and organismal patterns evident among populations and species. His work on speciation theory incorporates a broad spectrum of approaches including population, comparative and functional genomics. Dr. Kulathinal focuses on reproductive genes, especially those expressing dimorphic patterns of expression, in order to understand how divergence and speciation progress.
Stacy W. Blain, PhD, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
(United States) - Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center and faculty member of the State University of New York. Dr Blain's laboratory studies cell cycle regulation, focusing on cyclin D-cdk4 and p27Kip1. The lab ws the first to demonstrate that p27 is a required activator of cyclin D-cdk4, thus showing that this well-characterized tumor suppressor has an additional oncogenic function. Her lab has also demonstrated that inappropriate cell cycle activation in quiescent neurons causes these cells to undergo apoptosis, and this might be one cause of the cell death seen in neuronal degenerative diseases.
Tissue Invasion and Metastasis
Wen G. Jiang, MD, PhD, Cardiff University School Of Medicine (United Kingdom) -
Professor of surgery and tumour biology at the Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK. Dr. Jiang leads a team with an interest in cancer. Professor Jiang graduated from the Beijing Medical University (presently Peking University Health Science Centre) in 1984 and had worked in Peking's First Teaching Hospital (BeiDa Hospital) as a Surgical Resident and Chief Surgical Resident. He came to Cardiff in 1989 and studied his M.D. degree at the University of Wales College of Medicine (currently Cardiff University School of Medicine) and received his M.D. degree in 1995. He was a Senior Lecturer and Reader at the Cardiff University and was appointed to the current Chair position in 2004. Professor Jiang's main academic interest is cancer metastasis and angiogenesis in solid tumours including breast and prostate cancer.
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Andrew J. Sanders, PhD, Cardiff University School Of Medicine
(United Kingdom) - Research Associate within the metastasis and angiogenesis research group (MARG), led by professor Wen Jiang. Dr. Sanders graduated from Cardiff University in 2003 with a degree in Applied Biology and subsequently studied for his PhD within MARG. Dr. Sanders' work has continued within the group as a postdoctoral research associate in the area of cancer metastasis and angiogenesis. Dr Sanders' main research interests focus on the Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) pathway, its activators and inhibitors and the importance of this pathway in cancer metastasis and angiogenesis, mainly in prostate and breast cancer. 
Daniel Sliva, PhD, Methodist Research Institute, IU Health
(United States) - Dr. Sliva, Senior Investigator and Director, Cancer Research Laboratory, Methodist Research Institute, is trained in nutrition (MS), biochemistry (MS) and molecular biology (PhD). He is looking for the development of natural/dietary compounds that can be used for the treatment or the prevention of cancer. His laboratory have recently published more than 35 peer-reviewed papers describing the biological activity and molecular mechanisms(s) of natural/dietary compounds, including edible and medicinal mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus, Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus linteus, Poria cocos) or their biologically active components (polysaccharides and triterpenes). Dr. Sliva has also recently demonstrated chemopreventive activities of mushroom extracts or natural dietary supplements in animal models of breast-to-lung cancer metastasis and colitis associated cancer.
Daniele Santini, MD, University Campus Bio-Medico
(Italy) -
Francesco Pantano, MD, University Campus Bio-Medico
(Italy) - 
Hendrik Ungefroren, PhD, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein
(Germany) - Professor of Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lubeck, Germany. Dr. Ungefroren's research focus is on the role of Transforming Growth Factor-beta signaling and its crosstalk with other oncogenic signaling pathways in the progression of pancreatic and breast cancers. Dr. Ungefroren has significant experience and a record of publications in the study of pancreatic adenocarcinoma including immune evasion strategies, cancer stem cells, control of cell migration/invasion and metastasis formation, apoptosis resistance/cancer resistance to therapy, and the use of small molecule inhibitors to block TGF-beta pro-oncogenic functions.
Jin-Rong Zhou, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
(United States) - Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School and Director, Nutrition/Metabolism Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr Zhou's primary research interest is to study the effects of dietary bioactive components and herbal ingredients on the prevention and treatment of cancer. The first research area is to explore the role of bioactive components in soybean, tea and certain Chinese herbs in inhibiting the growth and metastasis of prostate cancer by using anatomically relevant animal models, and to elucidate molecular/ cellular mechanisms of action. The second research area is to study the effects of soybean phytochemicals, tea polyphenols and herbal components on the progression of breast cancer. The third research area focuses on the role dietary soy products may play in facilitating the effect of radiation treatment on the cancers of prostate and breast.
Mark Prince, MD, University Of Michigan
(United States) - Associate Professor and Residency Program Director, Department of Otolaryngology. Dr Prince's research interests include: cancer progression and regional and distant metastasis; cancer stem cells and their role in resistance to therapy and the development of metastasis; the development of targeted novel therapeutics against cancer stem cells; and the design of clinical trials that translate laboratory and clinical observations to improve cancer patients. Dr Prince has significant experience and a record of publications in the study of squamous cell carcinoma including cancer stem cells, cancer resistance to therapy, metastasis, animal modeling and translational science.
Prof. Massimo Zollo, PhD, CEINGE BIOTECNOLOGIE AVANZATE
(Italy) - Chair of Genetics and Medical Genetics in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology. Professor Zollo's group studies the genetic mechanisms and pathways of action of molecular dysregulation in cancer cells by focusing on the metastatic microenvironment (including the function of immune system cells). His group aims to identify new factors and new therapeutic targets. They are focused on understanding the role of cancer stem cells propagating within and outside the tumor, identifying new drugs of natural origin in the field of "Medicinal Chemistry" and adapted to experimental models in mice for the treatment of tumors. His research group has produced several scientific papers in the literature over the last 10 years with a particular interest in the study of two miRNAs isolated and characterizing their tumor suppressor activities that perform key functions in pediatric tumors of origin within the central and peripheral nervous system.
Punita Dhawan, PhD, Vanderbilt University
(United States) - Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr Dhawan currently focuses her research on claudins, metastasis, tumorigenesis, signal transduction and trafficking, and cell death and differentiation.
Sarah K Thompson, MD, PhD, University Of Adelaide, Royal Adelaide Hospital
(Australia) - Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgeon and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery since 2007, Dr. Thompson is the current Chair of the South Australian Statewide Upper GI Cancer multidisciplinary meeting. She was the lead investigator on recently published work assessing HER-2 receptor status in esophageal cancer and its impact on survival, as well as work examining the importance of isolated tumor cells in draining lymph nodes. Current multidisciplinary research in her lab (involving researchers with expertise in biophysics, nuclear medicine, chemistry, and surgical oncology) is focused on developing novel multimodal lymph node tracers, capable of 1) providing a reliable map of sentinel lymph node(s) using MRI as well as lymphoscintigraphy, and 2) highlighting positive/metastatic lymph nodes with imaging alone (i.e. noninvasive staging). The goal is to offer patients individualized treatment protocols and, ultimately, avoid the need for an invasive surgical approach in some patients.
Subbarayan R Pochi, PhD, University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine
(United States) - Dr. Subbarayan R Pochi is a Research Assistant Professor in the Deparment of Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL. He has had a long standing interest in patient-oriented research. The two areas of study that he has been involved are 1. Development of rationally designed evidence based combination chemotherapy and 2. Discovery of novel anti-cancer molecules from medicinal plants. He and his research collaborators have demonstrated that a combination of arsenic trioxide and 5-FU exhibited synergism against chemo resistant colorectal cancer. This regimen was tested in a phase I clinical study. Soon we will start a phase II clinical trial. In the drug discovery effort, we have validated the anti-cancer properties of a plant Achyranthes aspera used in Ayurveda. Soon we expect to have the detailed structural information.
Malancha Sarkar Ph.D., University Of Miami
(United States) - Dr. Malancha Sarkar Ph.D. is a faculty in the Department of Biology, University of Miami, FL. She is interested in investigating the use of natural products in combating human diseases. Many plants are known to produce clinically beneficial secondary metabolites; many of them are used as source of drugs. She is specifically interested in characterizing novel compounds produced by Endophytes from ethno pharmacologically important plants. Isolating the medicinally important metabolites from plant endophytes is considered less cumbersome than purifying it from plants.
Tumor Microenvironment
Dean Felsher, MD, PhD, Stanford University (United States) -
Professor of Medicine and of Pathology at Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University, California, USA. Dr Felsher's research interests include both basic science and translational research studies that investigate how oncogenes initiate and sustain tumorigenesis. He is a 1996 Lymphatic Research Foundation Fellow and 2001 Junior Faculty Award Recipient. His laboratory has developed model systems that can conditionally activate oncogenes in normal human and mouse cells in tissue culture or in specific tissues of transgenic mice.
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Stephanie C. Casey, PhD, Stanford University
(United States) - Dr. Stephanie Casey is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology. Her research interests include tumorigenesis, tumor relapse, and how the immune system contributes to each, with a focus on leukemia and lymphoma. She has also has a specific interest in the role of inflammation and endocrine disruption in carcinogenesis. 
Fabian Benencia, PhD, Ohio University
(United States) - Assistant Professor of Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences. Dr Benencia's research explores the capability of antigen presenting cells to act as inducers or suppressors of immunity responses in different diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis or infections. These cells are keystones of the immune response, being capable of triggering specific immunity. Thus, they have been used for vaccination purposes. In pathological conditions, they can be involved in inflammatory diseases, collaborating with tissue injury. On the other hand, they can collaborate with tumor growth by suppressing the specific anti-tumor immune response or inducing tumor vascularization. Investigating the factors governing the phenotype plasticity of these cells may unhide new targets for immune therapies.
Petr Heneberg, PhD, Charles University In Prague
(Czech Republic) - Assistant Professor at Charles University in Prague, Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Heneberg's research focuses on the signal transduction in normal and transformed tissues and on the influence of the environment on humans and other organisms. The recent contributions include proposal and experimental verification of a new model of protein tyrosine kinase : phosphatase equilibrium in signaling via multichain immune receptors (J Biol Chem 285: 12787), analysis of the lineage antibody cocktails used to select stem/progenitor cells from both cancer and healthy tissues, showing that the vast majority of them retains basophils, dendritic cells and mast cells, and suggesting alternatives allowing negative selection of the above cellular populations (Curr Pharm Des 17: 3753), and co-invention of rapid, simple and versatile method for isolation of plasmatic membrane sheets from non-adherent cells for the purpose of immuno-gold staining followed by transmission electron microscopy (J Immunol Methods 328: 139).
Prof. P. K. Goyal, PhD, University Of Rajasthan, Jaipur
(India) - Professor & Principal Investigator in the Radiation & Cancer Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. Dr Goyal's lab has been investigating the extracts of various medicinal plants e.g. Emblica officinalis (Amla), Rosemary officinalis (Rosemary), Alstonia scholaris (Sapthaparna), Aegle marmelos (Bael), Phyllanthus niruri (Bhumi amla), Syzgium cumini (Jamun), Tinospora cordifolia (Gloe), Averroa carambola (Kamrak) in various mouse models for the prevention and treatment of skin, stomach and liver cancers. It has been found that most of these plant extract have prophylactic potential in reducing the incidence of cancer and delaying the appearance of tumors. Investigations are ongoing to find out the active constituents / single molecule for the use in clinics for the cancer management.
Sarah Crawford, PhD, Southern Connecticut Atate University
(United States) - Professor in Genetics and Cancer Biology. Dr Crawford is focused on the cancer microenvironment and the use of anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidants as cancer preventives/therapeutics. Specifically, she is focused on the development of new therapeutic phytochemicals, mechanisms of transformation involving vesicular transfer, and the development of ex vivo chick egg culture system for human tumors.
Sid Kerkar, MD, National Cancer Institute, NIH
(United States) - Research and Clinical Fellow in the Laboratory of Pathology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr Kerkar specializes in the tumor microenvironment and gene therapy. He has an ongoing interest in the cellular and molecular interactions within tumors and how these mechanisms might inform the designin of new immune and cytokine based gene therapies.
Vasundara Venkateswaran, PhD, University Of Toronto
(Canada) - Associate Professor in the Division of Urology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Venkateswaran has been focused on the field of micronutrient research in prostate cancer. Her research interest is in the area of clinical biochemistry as well as molecular and cell biology, focusing on the cellular effects of diet, micronutrients and prostate cancer prevention.
Xiaohong Li, PhD, Van Andel Research Institute
(United States) - - Assistant Professor at the Center of Skeletal Disease and Tumor Metastasis, Van Andel Research Institute. Dr. Li's lab has focused on studying the different role of stromal cells, from the primary and metastatic sites, on prostate and breast cancer bone metastases, and the contribution from microenvironment to prostate cancer osteoblastic bone metastasis. Her research is supported by the Van Andel Institute and the Department of Defense.
Tumor Promoting Inflammation
Anupam Bishayee, PhD, American University Of Health Sciences School Of Pharmacy (United States) -
Founding Chair and Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Administrative Sciences in the School of Pharmacy, American University of Health Sciences, Signal Hill, California. Dr Bishayee's research for the last 17 years focuses on elucidation of the protective, chemopreventive and therapeutic effects of medicinal plants and natural products and their synthetic analogs in pre-clinical animal models of breast, prostate and liver cancer. His current research program aims to investigate mechanism-based chemopreventive and therapeutic modalities of dietary and plant-based phytochemicals, including resveratrol from grapes, anthocyanans from berries as well as ellagitinins from pomegranates, in pre-clinical models of breast and liver cancer.
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Bal L. Lokeshwar, PhD, University Of Miami School Of Medicine, Miami,Florida
(United States) - The research program of Dr. Bal Lokeshwar laboratory is focused on the mechanism of cancer progression and enhancing existing system of therapy. Current projects in his laboratory are on to investigate the role of CXC chemokines and their receptors (CXCRs) that contribute to chronic inflammation, transformation, and accelerate the progression of the disease. The group is engaged in identifying the mechanism of CXCR up-regulation and its impact on cancer progression. In addition, the laboratory is engaged in translational research, where the group is investigating the potential use of a pair of natural products that show promising results in laboratory models of prostate and breast cancers. Other projects include development of new markers for renal cell cancers that may help us non-invasively detect kidney cancers or help us in disease prognosis.
Carolina Panis, PhD, National Cancer Institute - INCA
(Brazil) - Research fellow at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) and Instituto Nacional do Cancer (INCA), Brazil. Works as a researcher in projects regarding genomics, proteomics and inflammatory aspects of human chronic diseases, with a special focus in oxidative stress and redox homeostasis in human cancer.
Diana Stafforini, PhD, University Of Utah
(United States) - Investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute, a research associate professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program. Dr Stafforini is interested in the role of inflammation in human disease. Her current studies at HCI are aimed at applying her expertise in the field of inflammation to the discovery of new pathways and mechanisms that lead to cancer.
H.P. Vasantha Rupasinghe, PhD, Dalhousie University
(Canada) - Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Agriculture, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, and Canada Research Chair in Fruit Bioactives and BioProducts within Dalhousie University. Dr. Rupasinghe is interested in discovering plant flavonoids and their derivatives with anti-cancer properties. Current investigations include understanding the mechanism(s) of action of specific flavonoids and derivatives that have shown selective detrimental action on cancer cell lines but minimum cytotoxicity to cultured normal human cells. His laboratory is also involved in investigating methods for enhancing the bioavailability and efficacy of selected plant flavonoids.
Brendan Grue, Dalhousie University
(Canada) - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology student, Departments of Environmental Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at Dalhousie University, and NSERC undergraduate research award recipient. Brendan's current research in Dr. Rupasinghe's laboratory is focused on inflammation-mediated carcinogenic pathways along with flavonoids as potential anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory therapeutics. In addition, Brendan is conducting experiments examining the effects of soluble nickel compounds towards the levels of carcinogenic and pro-inflammatory mediators in human lung fibroblast cells. The possible applications of berry flavonoids as therapeutics towards the nickel induced cytotoxicity are being investigated. 
Kapil Mehta, PhD, Univ Of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
(United States) - Professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Cancer Medicine (Biochemistry) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor of Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. Dr Mehta's research is focused on Inflammation-induced drug resistance and metastasis. In an attempt to understand the nature of tumor-encoded genes whose expression contributes to the development of drug resistance and metastasis, Dr Mehta's lab identified a stress responsive gene (TGM2) whose expression is upregulated in multiple drug resistant and metastatic tumors. TGM2 encodes a structurally and functionally complex protein (TG2), whose expression under physiological conditions implicated in cell migration, apoptosis, and angiogenesis during inflammation and would healing. The immediate objectives of the lab is to define TG2-regulated pathways that contribute to the development of drug resistance and metastasis in cancer cells.
Lorne J. Hofseth, PhD, University Of South Carolina
(United States) - Associate Professor, Graduate Director, South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina. Chronic inflammation is dangerous. It drives many prevalent diseases in our society, including heart disease and cancer. Current treatment strategies to dampen signs and symptoms of chronic inflammation are limited, and fraught with side-effects. Often this is because of the dual roles of one molecule in different parts of the body. Our lab studies the interaction between chronic inflammation and cancer in cell culture, animal models, and in clinical trials. We have been studying the ability of complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) to suppress inflammation; in particular, colits. We are also carrying out clinical trials to examine the role of juice extracts to reduce systemic inflammation, and improve overall health. Finally, in collaboration with medicinal chemists, we have identified novel synthetic inhibitors of colitis and colon cancer.
Deepak Poudyal, PhD, University Of South Carolina
(United States) - Dr. Poudyal graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2013. He has an interest in complementary and alternative medicines in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, and prevention of cancer associated with those diseases. 
Luigi Ricciardiello, MD, University Of Bologna
(Italy) - Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Bologna. Spent 8 years in the USA as a post-doctoral fellow at UCSD and then as a senior scientist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. His main research focuses on colorectal cancer prevention and chemoprevention. In particular his work focuses on the effect of natural compounds, such as omega-3 PUFAs and bioactives present in the mediterranean diet, on both animal and human models of colon cancer. Dr. Ricciardiello is funded by the Italian Association of Cancer Research and is co-coordinator of an EU-FP7 project.
Richard E. Kast, MD, Tufts University
(United States) - My research in recent years has been devoted to publishing work on identifying and understanding growth-promoting or cell-death resisting mechanisms in glioblastoma, then searching for drugs that are marketed for other indications, that would inhibit or interfere with these paths. As examples: the anti-hypertension drug captopril inhibits MMP-2 & MMP-9, the anti-alcoholism drug disulfiram inhibits function of stem cell mediator ALDH, the anti-fungal drug ketoconazole inhibits 5-lipoxygenase and thromboxane synthase, the anti-HIV drug nelfinavir (or ritonavir) inhibit HSP90. All these targets were previously identified as important facilitators of glioblastoma growth.
Rupesh Chaturvedi, PhD, Vanderbilt University
(United States) - Gastric adenocarcinoma is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and H. pylori infection is the strongest known risk factor for this malignancy. H. pylori-associated gastric cancer is a multifactorial disease and depends on host genetic susceptibility, phylogenetic origin of H. pylori, and external environmental factors such as diet. Curcumin, a secondary metabolite of the plant turmeric, is a common food ingredient in India. The turmeric plant is used in the traditional Indian medicine system, , to treat gastrointestinal diseases. H. pylori infection causes a mixed M1/M2 macrophage (Mac) innate immune response, and an inappropriately Th1-biased adaptive immune response contributes to the pathogenesis of disease. Our observations have determined that curcumin polarizes H. pylori-activated Macs to regulatory Macs in a NF-kB1 (p105/p50)-dependent manner and causes an immune tolerance in host. My research program is exploring the potential of curcumin as a biological response modifier during H. pylori infection.
Daniel P. Barry, PhD, Vanderbilt University
(United States) - Dr. Daniel P. Barry received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of California, Davis. He currently works at Vanderbilt University where his current research focus is on pathologic mechanisms of gastritis and colitis.
Validation Team
Kanya Honoki, MD, PhD, Nara Medical Univeristy (Japan) -
Assistant professor and chief of musculoskeletal oncology unit in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Arthroplasty and Regenerative Medicine at Nara Medical University, Japan. Expertized in basic and clinical orthopedic oncology, cancer cell biology and stem cell biology, regenerative and restorative medicine. Has been working mainly on the pathogenesis of sarcomas using own-established rat sarcoma model and human materials, focusing on molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease progression such as invasion, metastasis and drug-resistance, which includes a role of stem cell population in sarcomas. Current research interest is stem cell aging and cancer development. Engaged as an active member of both American and European Association for Cancer Research, Japanese Cancer Association and International Society for Stem Cell Research, and also an editorial board member and reviewer of several international societies and journals including European Science Foundation, PLosOne, British Journal of Cancer, Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, Cell Biology International.
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Hiromasa Fujii, MD., PhD., Nara Medical Univeristy
(Japan) - Completed his doctorate at Nara Medical University Graduate School in 2009, and spent his postdoctoral research fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Inmotion Institute, Memphis, USA. His research field mainly focusing on tumor initiating cells. 
Alexandros Georgakilas, PhD, National Technical University Of Athens
(Greece) - GENETIC INSTABILITY >> Associate Professor, Biology Department. Dr Georgakilas is interested in the repair mechanisms of clustered DNA damage which is considered as the most difficult for the cell to repair. A main part of his research is devoted to the evaluation of the role of clustered DNA damage in the promotion of carcinogenesis. Currently in his laboratory he has two main ongoing projects: 1. Role of BRCA1 and DNA-PKcs repair proteins in the processing of clustered DNA damage in human breast cancer, and 2. Possible use of DNA damage clusters as novel cancer/radiation biomarkers for prognostic and therapeutic applications.
Somaira Nowsheen, 2Medical Scientist Training Program, Mayo Graduate School, Mayo Clinic College Of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905
(United States) - An MD PhD student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Mayo Clinic. Her research interests include methods to improve cancer therapy utilizing the approach of personalized medicine and targeting of DNA repair pathways to enhance the therapeutic ratio. She is interested in discovering novel strategies to augment DNA repair pathways to specifically protect normal cells from DNA damage while reducing DNA repair capacity to convert tumor cells to become more susceptible to DNA damaging agents. Ultimately, she hopes her research helps to improve the quality of life of cancer patients. 
Amedeo Amedei, PhD, University Of Florence
(Italy) - IMMUNE SYSTEM EVASION - Researcher and Laboratory Chief, University of Florence. Dr Amedei is interested in the role of immune response versus helicobacter pylori on pathogenesis diseases correlate with human bacterium infection: ulcer-gastritis, gastric cancer, MALT-lymphoma; the physiopathology of primitive and secondary immunodeficiencies; the analysis of T specific lymphocytes versus Mycobacterium Tuberculosis peptides; infectious agents and specific immune T response on the genesis of atherosclerotic plaques; and the correlation between bacteria and autoimmune diseases (molecular mimicry); immune-adjuvant effects of microorganism elements; the analysis of new proteins that modulate mRNA of BCL2 gene; the role of hERG1 K+ channels in the tumorogenesis and the characterization of immune T response specific to cancer antigens in patients with digestive system cancers
Elena Niccolai, University Of Florence
(Italy) - Three-year degree in Biological Sciences, University of Florence, obtained on 2005, with vote of 110 cum laude. Degree in Biological Sciences masterly health, University of Florence, obtained on 2008, with vote of 110 cum laude. Thesis title: Determination of endothelial cells progenitor cells in a circle as a new parameter for diagnosis of sepsis. Research fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, for studies on "Design of a new immunotherapy for gastric cancer" from April 2010 to December 2011. Research fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, for studies on "Study of immune response in pancreatic cancer patients" from April 2012 to March 2013. PhD in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, for studies on "Studies of the immune-specific response in gastrointestinal tumors", from December 2010. 
Amr Amin, PhD, UAE University
(United Arab Emirates) - TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT - Professor Amin is a graduate faculty at UAE University. His research interests in preventive medicine encompass four main areas (1) isolation and characterization of naturally-derived biomolecules and testing them in preclinical studies mainly against cancer, (2) employing MRI and nanoparticles in cancer's diagnostics and drug delivery respectively, (3) dissecting the molecular pathways of selected potential anti-cancer natural products through utilizing different in vitro, in vivo and in silico methods to finally introduce them as novel drug targets, (4) running clinical trials for the most promising anti-cancer biomolecules.
S. Salman Ashraf, PhD, UAE University
(United Arab Emirates) - Salman is currently an associate professor of Biochemistry at UAE University, which he joined 10 years ago. Prior to that he was working in biotech companies in North America for over 6 years. He has research interests in natural products, signal transduction pathways, nuclear hormone receptors, oxidative stress and cancer biology. 
Bill Helferich, PhD, University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign
(United States) - SUSTAINED PROLIFERATIVE SIGNALLING - Professor of Nutrition. Dr Helferich's research focus is on diet and breast cancer growth and progression. He is the director of an NIH-funded Botanical Research Center with a focus on Botanical Estrogens. His specific focus is on the role of dietary estrogens (for example, soy isoflavones) have on breast cancer growth and progression using well-established pre-clinical models. His recent research is focused on plant materials and extracts and evaluates how these complex mixtures alter breast cancer.
Xujuan Yang, University Of Illinois
(United States) - Xujuan has worked in my laboratory of 8 years. She has taken the lead on numerous in vivo studies to evaluate dietary estrogen in preclinical models. 
Chandra S. Boosani, PhD, Creighton University
(United States) - Dr. Boosani has shown new findings in the role of anti-angiogenic proteins that inhibit integrin mediated outside-in signalling initiated by growth factors. These endogenous proteins were found to prevent de novo angiogenesis, affecting the vital cellular functions such as cell proliferation and migration through different intracellular kinase pathways. He has also evaluated the remarkable therapeutic potential of these anti-angiogenic proteins which reduced tumor vasculature in mouse models. His current work is focused on gene therapy using viral vectors and in vivo testing.
Gunjan Guha, M.Sc., PhD, SASTRA University
(India) - EVASION OF ANTI-GROWTH SIGNALLING - Dr. Guha's prime research area is cellular homeostasis in view of oxidative stress. His major interest is looking at molecular pathways of cell death, proliferation and cancer progression vis-à-vis oxidative injury to the mitochondrial paraphernalia. The other main part of his work deals with prospecting of plant and microbe derived compounds/complexes and their biosynthetically engineered analogs as precursors of anti-degenerative drugs.
Dipita Bhakta, M.Sc., PhD., SASTRA University
(India) - Dr. Dipita Bhakta's major research encompasses identification of novel therapeutics in countering free radical associated cellular/molecular damages, inhibition of cell cycle progression and centrosomal clustering. In addition, the interaction of the bioactive compounds with DNA is another facet of her research, with a direction for the development of DNA-targeted anti-cancer therapeutics. 
Maria Rosa Ciriolo, PhD, University Of Rome
(Italy) - DEREGULATED METABOLISM - The main interest of Dr Ciriolo's research group is to make clear that oxidative state plays a key role in the regulation and control of numerous signal transduction pathways in the cell and that elucidating the mechanisms behind oxidative stress-mediated cell death or proliferation is important in identifying potential putative targets for the treatment of neuropathologies as well as cancer. Glutathione, a pivotal constituent of antioxidant defense and enzyme cofactor, is involved in several cellular functions. The study of the changes of the levels and redox status of this tripeptide in association with several physio-pathological situations is also deeply studied in Dr Ciriolo's laboratory.
Katia Aquilano, Dept. Of Biology, University Of Rome
(Italy) - REDOX ENERGETIC METABOLISM – Dr. Aquilano performs research in the field of involvement of oxidative/nitrosative stress in human diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders (i.e. obesity and type 2 diabetes). In particular, she dissects the molecular mechanisms and signal transduction pathways that regulate cellular energetic metabolism focusing on nutrient and redox sensitive proteins implicated in the control of the expression of metabolic and antioxidant genes. She also studies the effects of nutraceuticals such as polyphenols from grapes and organosulfur compounds from garlic on cancer cells bioenergetic trying to identify new druggable protein targets to inhibit proliferation. 
Sophie Chen, PhD, Ovarian And Prostate Cancer Research Trust Laboratory
(United Kingdom) - TUMOR PROMOTING INFLAMMATION - Director of the Ovarian and Prostate Cancer Research Trust Laboratory Research Director, received Ph.D from Columbia University. She is the scientist (while as a research associate professor at NY Medical College) principally responsible for identifying the active agents in the plant extracts that made up the anti-prostate cancer phyto-chemical extracts mixture sold as 'PC-SPES' (produced by BotanicLab of California between 1997 and 2001). It demonstrated the substantial life extending efficacy of the formulation in approximately 40% of 'advanced' cases of the disease indicated in several pilot clinical studies. Her prsent research focuses on the effects of phytochemicals in inflammation, cancer signal pathway genes and proteins, and in immunomodulation. Most recent publications in the fields: Discovery Medicine, 2012, 14: 327-333, ibid 2012, 13:7-17; BBRC 2012, 429: 117-123; Current Drug Targets, 2011; 12: 288-301; Cell Biol Toxicol. 2011 ; 27(2):133-47.
Dorota Halicka, MD, PhD, New York Medical College
(United States) - Dr Halicka received MD and PhD from Warsaw University. Currently she is research assistant professor at NYMC. Her research on leukemia clinical specimen has helped the development of individual therapy in Weschester Medical Center. In the past 15 years she has collaborated with Dr Chen in finding the cytotoxic and cytostatic effects of phytochemicals on various cancer cell lines. Her selected publication includes Leukemia Res 2008, 33(7): 997-1000; Int J Oncol 2008, 32 :405-411; Cancer Biol & Ther 2008, 7:1104-1108; Aging (Albany) 2012, 4:270-278. 
Sulma Mohammed, DVM, PhD, Purdue University Cancer For Cancer Research
(United States) - Associate Professor of Cancer Biology in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine and Purdue University Center for Cancer Research.
