While much has been learned about the proteome in all organisms, a whole class of proteins—the smallest proteins—have been ignored due to challenges in their annotations and biochemical characterization. Thousands of these microproteins are now being discovered and shown to have regulatory roles in all organisms. By interacting with larger proteins, microproteins modulate the activities, subcellular localization and stabilities of these targets.
Electron Kebebew, MD Stanford University, Stanford Medicine
The lecture will focus on the concept of precision surgery. While there have been significant efforts and advances in precision medicine, there has been less attention on how surgical care can be individualized. Thus, the presentation will describe how advanced imaging and genetic testing can impact surgical approaches for endocrine tumors and how this can impact patient outcomes. Current research efforts for patients with surgical incurable rare cancers will also be discussed.
Kathleen H. Burns, M.D., Ph.D. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Harvard Medical School
Our genome is replete with repetitive DNAs, many of which are accumulated self-propagating sequences. Long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1,L1) retrotransposons dominate this activity today, making copies of themselves by first being transcribed to RNA and then reverse transcribed to cDNA integrated into the genome. Increased L1 activity is a hallmark of cancers, and L1 insertions can act as driving mutations in tumorigenesis. L1 encodes a bicistronic RNA. The first of its open reading frames (ORFs) encodes ORF1 protein (ORF1p), which forms an RNA-binding homotrimer.
Andrew Hyland, PhD Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Andrew Hyland from the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York will describe cigarette use patterns over time, present research identifying cigarette smoking as a major contributor to chronic disease and describe factors increase our understanding why people smoke and what reduces cigarette smoking in the population. He will also highlight the PATH Study, a key component of the national data collection infrastructure, that has made significant scientific advances to understand the nature of tobacco use and its impacts.
Tom B Thompson , PhD University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
The focus of my laboratory is divided into two areas of investigation where I study the structural and functional aspects of TGFbeta family signaling and regulation along with the structures of apolipoproteins and how this relates to HDL particles and other related biological functions. The laboratory uses a combination of structural techniques including X-ray crstallography, small angle X-ray scattering coupled with biophysical and biochemical experiments.
Dr. Bonnemann received his MD from Freiburg University, Germany. He completed pediatric training and venia legendi (Habilitation) in Germany. Residency in pediatric neurology at MGH/Harvard was followed by postdoctoral work with Dr. Louis Kunkel at Children's Hospital Boston working on the molecular genetics of muscular dystrophy. In 2002 he joined the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/University of Pennsylvania as Assistant Professor, Co-Director of the Neuromuscular Program, and Director of the Neurogenetics Clinic.
Sonia Vallabh co-leads the initiative to develop preventive drugs for prion disease at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She comes to this work with a personal mission. In 2010, Vallabh watched her 52-year-old mother die of a rapid, mysterious, undiagnosed dementia. One year later, Vallabh learned that her mother’s disease had been genetic prion disease, and that she herself was at risk. Vallabh underwent predictive genetic testing and learned that she had inherited the causal mutation, placing her at very high risk of developing the same disease.
Victor Ambros earned his undergraduate degree in 1975, his doctorate in 1979 and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in 1983, all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During graduate school, he worked with David Baltimore, PhD, a co-recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries related to the interaction between tumor viruses and genetic material of the cell. In Dr. Baltimore’s lab, Ambros studied the poliovirus genome structure and replication. Ambros then conducted his postdoctoral research in the lab of H.
Dianne Newman, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology
Dianne Newman is a molecular microbiologist, a professor in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at California Institute of Technology. Her research interests include bioenergetics and cell biology of metabolically diverse, genetically-tractable bacteria. Her work deals with electron-transfer reactions that are part of the metabolism of microorganisms.
