TCD postgraduate student on HRB PhD Programme in
Molecular Medicine wins top prize at Cancer Genomics
MasterClass.
As part of the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance, Trinity
College Dublin and St James’s Hospital hosted a Cancer Genomics
MasterClass on Thursday 4th December 2008, at the Institute of
Molecular Medicine, St James's Hospital and TCD. Over 70 delegates
attended from different institutions on the island of Ireland to hear the
latest developments in this fast moving area from a faculty of
acknowledged experts in the field.
The MasterClass series, an innovative doctoral education programme
involving Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Dublin City
University, National College of Ireland Maynooth, Dublin Institute of
Technology and Institute of Technology Tallaght was formally
launched by the Prof Carol O Sullivan, Dean of Graduate Studies at
Trinity College Dublin. She outlined how “the Dublin Region Higher
Education Alliance (DRHEA) through the 2nd Strand of the Strategic
Innovation Fund (SIF) is striving to provide quality postgraduate
education to PhD students in Ireland”, adding that “this MasterClass
represents an innovative way of exposing Irish Scientists to high
quality research and also provides a way for their own research to be
critiqued by an international faculty”.
Prof Mark Lawler, Institute of Molecular Medicine, St James’s Hospital
and Trinity College Dublin welcomed the assembled delegates to the
MasterClass and looked forward to a stimulating day of science and
discussion in this important area. Introducing the topic of the
MasterClass, he emphasized how understanding the genomic
architecture of cancers has allowed us to make significant advances,
both in our understanding of this common live threatening disease and
also in translating these results for clinical benefit. “A high quality
programme of international speakers with significant representation
from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Washington will provide a
MasterClass on the latest developments in Cancer Genomics.
Currently there has been an explosion in our knowledge of new
genetic loci that predispose to different types of cancer, with almost 50
new genetic susceptibilities reported in the premier international
journals. This represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of the
causes of cancer”. This MasterClass represented an excellent
opportunity to hear the latest advances in this rapidly growing area
from acknowledged international experts in the field, it provided an
opportunity for postgraduate and postdoctoral students to meet with
these experts in a workshop setting and it had the added advantage of
expert critique of their work and advice from the distinguished faculty
that was assembled for the MasterClass. In addition, this MasterClass
discussed some of the technological approaches that are relevant
across the disease spectrum where there is a genetic component.
Dr Steven Chanock, National Cancer Institute, chair of the judging committee, presenting
the prize to Therese Murphy, Institute of Molecular Medicine, TCD..
As part of the MasterClass, a number of abstracts were selected from
those submitted and the selected
attendees gave short oral
presentations, highlighting their work in areas as diverse as identifying
genetic susceptibility to multiple myeloma, a common B cell
malignancy; developing new technical approaches to detect genetic
changes in cancer cells; developing a molecular algorithm for cervical
cancer; studying the genetics of inherited colon cancer. The
presentations were judged by an international panel, who commented
on the high quality of the presentations. The winning presentation
was given by Ms Therese Murphy, a PhD scholar on the HRB PhD
in Molecular Medicine Graduate Programme, working in Prof Mark
Lawler’s laboratory in the Institute of Molecular Medicine, St
James’s Hospital and Trinity College Dublin. She spoke on the
identification of novel epigenetically modified genes controlling cell
death in prostate cancer cells where she has identified a number of
genes epigenetically regulated in prostate cancer which have not been
previously described.
The students at the meeting benefitted
enormously from interacting with the assembled Faculty and the
quality of the presentations and the discussions were superb.
CANCER GENOMICS FACULTY
Stephen Chanock is Chief of the Laboratory of Translational Genomics
at the National Cancer Institute, USA. He is Director of the NCI Core
Genotyping Facility and Co-Leader of the Cancer Genetic Markers of
Susceptibility (CGEMS) project, an NCI enterprise initiative to conduct
whole genome association studies to identify genes giving rise to risk
of prostate and breast cancer.
Doug Easton is a Cancer Research UK Principal Research Fellow
and Director of the Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology
Unit at the University of CambridgeCambridge. He is world-renowned
for his research into genes that affect our risk of common cancers,
particularly breast cancer. His team also works on ovarian cancer,
prostate cancer and melanoma.
Robert Hoover is Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Programme of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at
the NCI, establishing ongoing programs of research in various areas of
cancer epidemiology. A special focus of his work has been in the area
of hormonal carcinogenesis. Dr. Hoover is widely recognized as one of
the USA's leading cancer epidemiologists.
Richard Hayes is a Senior Investigator at the Division of Cancer
Epidemiology and Genetics at the NCI and has a particular interest in
the genetics of prostate cancer and the genetics of colorectal cancer.
He has published widely in such premier journals as Science, Nature
Genetics, Cancer Research, Journal National Cancer Institute,
Carcinogenesis, American Journal of Epidemiology.
Gilles Thomas is a Co-Leader of the the Cancer Genetic Markers of
Susceptibility (CGEMS) project . The CGEMs project is designed to
capitalize on new knowledge of human genetic variation and technical
advances in ultra-high-throughput genotyping. CGEMS is designed to
conduct whole genome scans in nested case-control studies of
prostate cancer and breast cancer from large ongoing populationbased cohort studies.
Paul Pharoah is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of
Cambridge. His primary areas of interest are in the architecture of
genetic susceptibility to common cancers (primarily breast, ovarian
and colorectal). He is also interested in understanding how germline
genetic variation influences disease heterogeneity and heterogeneity
in the clinical outcomes of cancer.