Shuyi Nie, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Tech

The neural crest is a unique population of cells in vertebrate. Induced at the neural plate border, neural crest cells detach from the neuroepithelium and migrate extensively to different parts of the embryo and give rise to multiple tissue and organs including neurons and glia, bones and cartilage, and pigment cells. Both the behavior of neural crest cells and signaling molecules in neural crest development are similar to that of metastatic cancer. In fact, dysregulation of neural crest development results in multiple cancer, including neuroblastoma, glioblastoma, and melanoma. Through studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural crest cell EMT and migration, we hope to gain insights into cancer metastasis. 

Georgia Tech has been a leader in the development of collaborative approaches to both cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. The mission of the Integrated Cancer Research Center (ICRC) is to facilitate integration of the diversity of technological, computational, scientific and medical expertise at Georgia Tech and partner institutions in a coordinated effort to develop improved cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

In 2017, Georgia Tech and Emory University continue the tradition of biennial International Conferences in Bioinformatics, inviting leading scientists to present the latest advances at the forefront of genomics and bioinformatics.

The conference features the prestigious Margaret O. Dayhoff lecture, the fifth since its inauguration in 2009.

Ciro Isidoro, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of General Pathology
Università del Piemonte Orientale

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenol with the potential to inhibit cancer cell migration. Here we show that Resveratrol counteracts the cell migration and invasion stimulatory effects of IL-6 (a cytokine released by cancer associated fibroblasts) and of Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA, a small phospholipid released by cancer cells), both known to promote ovarian cancer metastasis. Transcriptomic and microRNomic analyses showed that Resveratrol and IL-6 regulated in an opposite manner the expression of RNA messengers and of microRNAs involved in cell locomotion and extracellular matrix remodeling associated with the invasive properties of ovarian cancer cells. Further, Resveratrol and LPA regulated in an opposite manner the expression of Bmi-1, a polycomb protein of the HedgeHog pathway involved in cancer cell stemness and metastasis. We show that the pathways triggered by Resveratrol converge in the activation of autophagy in cancer cells and that this process is sufficient to inhibit cancer cell migration and invasion.

April 13, 2017
Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB), Rm. 1005
Georgia Tech

We are at a truly exciting crossroads in the history of cancer research where molecular biology, the computational sciences, engineering and nanotechnology are joining together in a unified effort to develop more effective cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. The benefits of this integrated approach are only beginning to be realized. The number of new technologies and devices arising from the fields of biomedical engineering and nanotechnology that have potential application to the area of cancer biology is unprecedented. The second annual ICRC mini-symposium at Georgia Tech will showcase recent advances in cancer nanotechnology by national and international experts in the field. Pre-registration is not required but space is limited. Please come early and participate in discussions with leaders in the field.

Speakers:

James Heath, Ph.D.
Elizabeth W. Gilloon 
Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology
Professor of Molecular Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Shana Kelley, Ph.D.
Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry,
Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Adriana Haimovitz-Friedman, Ph.D.
Attending Radiation Biologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Susan Thomas, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Todd Sulchek, Ph.D.
Professor
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering 
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

A. Fatih Sarioglu, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering 
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Symposium Agenda

Nicholas Boulis, M.D. is a Functional Neurosurgeon with significant expertise in the field of gene transfer to the nervous system. Dr. Boulis' Gene and Cell Therapy Translational Laboratory pursues advanced biological treatments for neurological disorders, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

Over the last two decades, growing knowledge about the underlying causes of these diseases, as well as the protective effects of special proteins, has given rise to hope for the development of therapies. Dr. Boulis' laboratory specializes in the therapeutic application of the genes for these proteins.

Within the Boulis laboratory, the genes for neural growth factors and anti-apoptotic intracellular proteins are inserted into the DNA of genetically engineered viruses. These viruses, which have been rendered safe through the removal of their native genes, can be used to transfer therapeutic genes into diseased tissue. A variety of vectors are currently being tested in both neuronal cell cultures and in animal models for MND.

In parallel, the Boulis laboratory has focused on the development of tissue-specific targeting strategies. These approaches are designed to deliver molecular therapeutics to an anatomically defined site of interest. Much of this effort has concentrated on motor neuron-specific gene delivery.

Finally, Dr. Boulis has focused on the development of techniques for safe and accurate injection of stem cells into the human spinal cord.

Research in the Boulis laboratory tests basic principles while providing tools for clinical translation. Techniques/assays applied in the lab include: neuronal cell cultures, rodent transgenic colonies, surgery in rodents (mice and rats), locomotor behavior assays in rodents, surgery in large animals (pigs and monkeys), histology, etc.

With proof-of-principle in the laboratory and Dr. Boulis' expertise in neurosurgery, the laboratory creates a unique resource for the development and clinical translation of these concepts.




The Petit Institute Breakfast Club seminar series was started with the spirit of the Institute's interdisciplinary mission in mind and started to feature local Petit Institute faculty member's research in a seminar format. Faculty are often asked to speak at other universities and conferences, but rarely present at their home institution, this seminar series is an attempt to close that gap. The Petit Institute Breakfast Club is open to anyone in the bio-community.

Nicholas Hud
Regents Professor
Professor, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Director, Center for Chemical Evolution

LECTURE PREVIEW

Charles Darwin once speculated that biological molecules might spontaneously form in a “warm little pond.” Then he concluded that it was “mere rubbish” to think about the origin of life during his time.

Now, 150 years later, tremendous advances In biology and chemistry have made it possible to explore—using model reactions and genomic data—the chemical origins and early evolution of life. 

This combination of bottom-up (chemical) and top-down (biological) approaches to uncovering the origins of life is helping to write the “missing first chapter” of Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Nicholas Hud has devoted much of his research to elucidating the fundamental principles of RNA and DNA assembly. His lab examines how the physical properties of nucleic acids govern biological functions in contemporary life and how these same properties provide clues to the origin and early evolution of life. 

ABOUT FRONTIERS IN SCIENCE LECTURES

Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers their talks for nonexpert audiences.

Light refreshments will be served.

Parking is available in the Visitors Lot on the south side of North Avenue, across Tech Tower.

Gabe Kwong, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Tech

The discovery of cancer at an early stage dramatically improves treatment outcomes, yet our current suite of blood-based diagnostics lack sensitivity and cannot reveal the presence of small, nascent tumors. The challenges are multifaceted and fundamental; recent mathematical studies showed that tumors may remain undetectable for an entire decade following tumorigenesis, reaching 1–2.5 centimeters in diameter. Here I will describe a new diagnostic framework based on the design and use of activity-based synthetic biomarkers for ultrasensitive and predictive monitoring of disease. Synthetic biomarkers target dysregulated protease activity to amplify detection signals into host urine, and have the capacity to discriminate tumors as small as a few millimeters in diameter—a threshold sensitivity that is otherwise challenging for medical imaging and blood biomarkers to achieve. Moreover, the number of clinical applications that are addressable with synthetic biomarkers is dramatically expanded by leveraging chemical encoding strategies. These include predicting disease progression and regression, monitoring patient response to drugs, and low-cost diagnostics for use in resource-limited environments. In the future, we envision synthetic biomarkers will significantly improve clinical decision making, accelerate clinical trials, and lower healthcare costs.

Joseph Lachance, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Tech

To determine why African men are more likely to suffer from prostate cancer (CaP), we integrated GWAS results and scans of selection with allele frequency data from 64 global populations.  Despite substantial overlap in genetic risk scores across populations, we find that predicted CaP risk is highest in West Africans and that a small number of loci drive these differences in risk.  There is a strong concordance between genetic risk scores and clinical estimates of CaP mortality.  Although most CaP-associated loci are evolving neutrally, we find multiple instances where alleles have hitchhiked to high frequencies with linked locally adaptive alleles.

Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D.
Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine
Professor of Medicine
Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry
Director, Michiha Center for Therapeutics Innovation
University of Michigan

Biography
Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D., obtained his B.S. degree from Peking University and his Ph.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University. His postdoctoral training was at National Institutes of Health. He is currently the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine at Michigan and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Wang has published 260 peer-reviewed papers, is an inventor of 40 issued patents. Dr. Wang has co-founded several biotech companies and has advanced 6 novel anticacner drugs into clinical development. Dr. Wang won the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator Award and was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (U.S.A.). 


Integrated Cancer Research Center (ICRC)
Georgia Tech has been a leader in the development of collaborative approaches to both cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. The mission of the Integrated Cancer Research Center is to facilitate integration of the diversity of technological, computational, scientific and medical expertise at Georgia Tech and partner institutions in a coordinated effort to develop improved cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

Deborah Kilpatrick, Ph.D. 
Chief Executive Officer
Evidation Health

Deborah Kilpatrick, Ph.D., is the C.E.O. of Evidation Health, a digital health company. Evidation Health is focused on creating digital health product value through clinical and economic outcomes and predictive analytics that help providers deploy the most effective interventions for the right patients at the right time. Prior to her role at Evidation Health, Deborah was the Chief Commercial Officer of the genomic diagnostics company CardioDx, whose Corus CAD product was named in the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards, TIME Magazine's Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs, and the Edison Awards. Earlier in her career, Deborah held multiple leadership roles at Guidant Corporation, including Research Fellow, Director of R&D, and Director of New Ventures in the Vascular Intervention Division. She serves on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and the Board of Directors for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Deborah is a co-founder of the MedtechVision Conference now held annually in Silicon Valley, and in 2013 she was named to FierceBiotech’s list of the Top Women in Biotech as well as Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 100 Women of Influence list. She holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering with a bioengineering focus from Georgia Tech. 

This seminar is hosted by the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students (BBUGS) Industry Committee and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

Abstract
Although gold is not a biomaterial per se, its nanomaterials have found widespread use in a variety of biomedical applications owning to their unique properties, including bio-inertness, tunable photoluminescence, radioactivity (for 198Au and 199Au), and strong scattering and absorption of light in the near-infrared region. Over the past decade, numerous methods have been developed for producing gold nanomaterials in the quality, quantity, and reproducibility required for a systematic study of their properties as a function of size, shape, and structure, as well as for the full exploration of their applications in biological studies and nanomedicine. In this talk, I will briefly discuss some of the new developments, with a focus on the rational design and controlled synthesis of gold nanomaterials for optical bioimaging, drug delivery, and cancer theranostics. 

References 1. Yang, X.; Yang, M.; Pang, B.; Xia, Y. “Gold nanomaterials at work in biomedicine”, Chem. Rev. 2015, 105, 10410-10486 (invited review article). 2. Xia, Y.; Li, W.; Cobley, C. M.; Chen, J.; Xia, X.; Zhang, Q.; Yang, M.; Cho, E. C.; Brown, P. K. “Gold nanocages: From synthesis to theranostic applications”, Acc. Chem. Res. 2011, 44, 914-924 (invited review article).

Research
Disruptive technologies enabled by nanoscale materials and devices will define our future in the same way that microtechnology has done over the past several decades. Our current research centers on the design and synthesis of novel nanomaterials for a broad range of applications, including nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, cancer theranostics, tissue engineering, controlled release, catalysis, and fuel cell technology.

The Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, an internationally recognized hub of multidisciplinary research at the Georgia Institute of Technology, brings engineers, scientists, and clinicians together to solve some of the world’s most complex health challenges. With 17 research centers, more than 170 faculty members, and $24 million in state-of-the-art facilities, the Petit Institute is translating scientific discoveries into game-changing solutions to solve real-world problems.

Identifying unexpected drug-protein interactions is crucial for drug repurposing. We develop a comprehensive proteome scale approach that predicts human protein targets and side effect of drugs. For drug-protein interaction prediction, FINDSITEcomb, whose average precision is ~30% and recall ~27%, is employed. For side effect prediction, a new method is developed with a precision of ~57% and a recall of ~24%. Our predictions show that drugs are quite promiscuous, with the average (median) number of human targets per drug  of 329 (38), while a given protein interacts with 57 drugs. The result implies that drug side effects are inevitable and existing drugs may be useful for repurposing, with only ~1,000 human proteins likely causing serious side effects. A killing index derived from serious side effects has a strong correlation with FDA approved drugs being withdrawn. Therefore, it provides a pre-filter for new drug development. The methodology is free to the academic community on the DR. PRODIS (DRugome, PROteome, and DISeasome) webserver. DR. PRODIS provides protein targets of drugs, drugs for a given protein target, associated diseases and side effects of drugs, as well as an interface for the virtual target screening of new compounds.  Successful applications of the methodology to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, to identify novel antibiotic leads and promising anti-seizure drugs are described.

SARIOGLU RESEARCH
Motivated by healthcare and biomedical research needs, our lab is developing technologies for investigating and manipulating biological systems on the micro and nanoscale. Using advanced fabrication techniques, we build devices that utilize microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), optics, electronics and signal processing. Through multidisciplinary collaborations, we use these technologies as clinical microdevices for disease detection and monitoring and as bioanalytical instruments for high-throughput molecular and cellular analysis.

For complete course information, including registration:
Business of Regenerative Medicine website

 

Polymeric micelle drug carriers were invented a quarter of century ago.1 Today this technology has reached a clinical stage. Nearly a dozen of drug candidates based on polymeric micelles undergo clinical trials and one product, Genexol-PM, a polymeric micelle paclitaxel, was approved for cancer therapy in South Korea.2 The value proposition of currently developed polymeric micelle drugs include increased drug solubility, increased extravasation and targeting to disease sites (e.g. tumors) as well as increased drug activity with respect to multidrug resistant cancers and cancer stem cells (CSC). One class of polymeric micelles is small aggregates (10 to 100 nm) formed by amphiphilic block copolymers. Hydrophobic drug molecules incorporate in polymeric micelles through cleavable covalent bonds or non-covalent interactions. Latest developments in this field include poly(2-oxazoline)-based polymeric micelles that can carry unprecedented high loading of hydrophobic drugs, such as paclitaxel, as well as blends of several insoluble drugs.3 Such formulations have much lower toxicity compared to conventional formulations, which use high amounts of unsafe excipients to dissolve poorly soluble drugs. Consequently, novel polymeric micelle formulations can be administered at much greater doses and are more efficient in killing cancer cells. Another class of polymeric micelles incorporates charged drug molecules and macromolecules by forming electrostatic complex with ionic block copolymers. In this format the incorporated molecules entrap into the polyion complex cores of micelles where they are protected from the biological environment by non-ionic water-soluble polymeric micelle shell. Upon reaching the target destination the micelles disintegrate and released their payload. This technology originally developed for antisense oligonucleotides,4 is now being used with chemotherapeutic agents, pDNA, siRNA and proteins. For example, extensive studies focus on the use of such systems for delivery of therapeutic enzymes (nanozymes) to the brain and other disease sites. In selected cases the nanozymes or are loaded into macrophages, which safely transport them, release at the sites of inflammation during disease.5 Moreover, the macrophages were shown to transduce the nanozyme particles as well as deliver genes into the host cells at the disease site.6 The proof of the principle has been obtained using animal models of stroke, hypertension, Parkinson’s disease, eye inflammation, influenza virus infection, spinal cord injury, and other diseases. Recent work was supported by NIH (U01 CA151806, R01CA184088, R01 CA89225, R01 NS051334, P20 RR021937), NC TraCS (4DR11404), DoD (W81XWH-09-1-0386, W81XWH-10-1-0806, W81XWH-11-1-0700), Rettsyndrome.org (HeART Award #3112) and Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation (11.G34.31.0004).

References:
1 H. Bader et al. Angew. Macromol. Chem. 1984, 123/124:457; A. Kabanov et al. FEBS Lett. 1989, 258:343; M. Yokoyama et al. Cancer Res. 1990, 50:1693.
2 M. Yokoyama et. al. J. Exp. Clin. Med. 2011, 3:8.
3 R. Luxenhofer et al. Biomaterials 2010, 31:4972; Y. Han et al. Mol. Pharmaceutics 2012, 9:2302; A. Schulz, et al. ACS Nano 2014, 8 (3), 2686–96.
4 A. Kabanov et al. Bioconj. Chem. 1995, 6: 639; A. Harada and K. Kataoka, Macromolecules 1995, 28: 5294.
5 A.M. Brynskikh et al., Nanomedicine 2010, 5:379-96; M.J. Haney, et al. Nanomedicine 2011, 6:1215.
6 M.J. Haney, et al., PLoS ONE 2013, 8(4): e61852; Y. Zhao, et al. PLoS One 2014, 9(9):e106867.

On display will be posters showing cancer research by scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech and other local institutions as well as summaries of recent publications that have been chosen for display and discussion from Cancer Biology and Technology students.

A list of the titles and other information about the Festival can be obtained by contacting Al Merrill.

This event is supported by the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience.

Ying Xu, PhD
Regents' Professor and Chair
GRA Eminent Scholar
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Institute of Bioinformatics
University of Georgia

A vast majority of the published cancer studies in the past few decades was conducted on cancer cells rather than cancer tissues. Knowing that the microenvironment plays key roles in cancer initiation, development and metastasis, we must reassess the true relevance of many of these published results to cancer. We have recently developed a new framework for cancer studies by treating cancer as a survival process under increasingly more challenging stresses, which evolve as a cancer evolves. Our main hypothesis is that cell proliferation is a sustained and common pathway to survival under all major cancer-associated stresses. The availability of large-scale cancer tissue omic data enables us to systematically identify various stress types present in each tissue and how each cancer tumor responds to the encountered stresses, ultimately validating, refining or rejecting this fundamentally novel hypothesis. In this presentation, I will discuss (1) how data mining can be used to identify such stresses and their responses, leading to substantially improved understanding about cancer evolution from its onset; and (2) how data mining-based discoveries can be integrated with cell-based experimental findings, leading to more comprehensive understanding about the key drivers and facilitators of cancer evolution, hence potentially leading to much improved treatment paradigms for challenging cancer cases.

Reference: Ying Xu, Juan Cui, Dave Puett, Cancer Bioinformatics, Springer 2014.

Come meet the new BBUGS leadership and learn how you can become involved in education and outreach, industry, policy, professional development, research, service, or social activities. This carnival-style picnic will feature game booths, popcorn and cotton candy and even the opportunity to pie a professor. 

• Prerequisites: Graduate standing with intent to pursue a PhD focused on pharmaceutical research.
• Course credit: 3 units
• Course meeting time: 9 AM – 5 PM on May 27, 28, 29, 30; June 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9
• Course meeting location: Georgia Tech campus
• Course number: CHBE 8803 (Georgia Tech); course numbers are being set up at Mercer, Emory, GSU

Course Description
Doctoral students from biochemistry, bioengineering, pharmacology, pharmacy, and other fields will work as part of interdisciplinary teams to simulate the drug development process starting with a druggable lead and ending with a report to “upper management” giving the scientific and business plan for development into an approved drug product. The course will follow an intensive, all-day, short-course format for ten consecutive weekdays with faculty lectures and student project teamwork. The goal of the course is to teach students the multifaceted process needed to bring a drug from concept to market in the context of open-ended, student-driven, collaborative projects addressing real-world problems in pharmaceutical development. 

Course syllabus

May 27 - Introduction to class and pharmaceutical development, Project teamwork and communication

May 28 - From drug lead to drug molecule

May 29 - Target indication, patient population

May 30 - Drug manufacturing scale up and GMP

June 2 - Formulation, route of administration, drug delivery systems

June 3 - Design of IND-enabling studies: CMC, PK/PD and toxicology

June 4 - Clinical trial design

June 5 - Pharmaceutical marketing

June 6 - Oral presentations and reports / business plan

June 9 - Final presentations


Please contact Mark Prausnitz for a registration permit or for more information.

Laising Yen, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology & Immunology
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Baylor College of Medicine

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women. Almost 70% of ovarian cancer deaths are due to the high-grade serous subtype, which is typically detected only after it has metastasized. Characterization of high-grade serous cancer is further complicated by the significant heterogeneity and genome instability displayed by this cancer. Using high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of seven patient samples combined with experimental validation at DNA, RNA and protein levels, we identified several cancer-specific fusion genes. Among them, CDKN2D-WDFY2 occurs at a frequency of 20% among sixty high-grade serous cancer samples but is absent in non-cancerous ovary and fallopian tube samples. This is the most frequent recombinant event identified so far in high-grade serous cancer implying a major cellular lineage in this highly heterogeneous cancer. The parental gene, CDKN2D, is a cell-cycle modulator that is also involved in DNA repair, while WDFY2 is known to modulate AKT interactions with its substrates. Transfection of cloned fusion construct led to a gain of a short WDFY2 protein isoform that is presumably under the control of the CDKN2D promoter. The expression of short WDFY2 protein in transfected cells appears to alter the PI3K/AKT pathway that is known to play a role in oncogenesis. Thus CDKN2D-WDFY2 could very well represent a major cellular lineage important for detecting and classifying heterogenous ovarian carcinomas, and could provide insight into the underlying mechanism of this deadly disease. This is critical, given that ovarian cancer kills 140,200 women worldwide each year, and few ovarian cancer-specific molecular alterations are currently available for targeting and screening.

Want to increase your salary?

Looking to move up?

Make things happen in your career! Join us at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Career Fair where you can connect with 100+ companies, build your network, and access over 400 open jobs!

See Who’s Recruiting

Register now for the Alumni Association's 32nd Annual Alumni Career Fair. 
$10 Per Person*

11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.  Career Fair Check-In

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.         Professional Development Workshop

2:00 – 6 p.m.               Career Fair – open to all attendees

5:30 – 7:30 p.m.                   Networking Meet and Greet at Buckhead Pizza Company in the Galleria Mall – hosted by the Marietta Network and sponsored by Hunter Technical Resources

For more information on this alumni career fair, please visit: http://gtalumni.org/careerfairalumni

Platinum compounds are a mainstay of cancer therapy, with more than half of all patients receiving an infusion of one of three FDA approved drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin). The biological action of cisplatin was discovered by serendipity in the late 1960s. Our laboratory has subsequently established the chemical nature of events leading up to the binding of platinum anticancer drugs to DNA, their principal target in the nucleus of cancer cells. The major adducts are cross-links between two adjacent nucleotides on one strand of the double helix, which bend and distort the duplex, interrupting cellular processing by RNA and DNA polymerases. We discovered more recently that related platinum compounds, capable of forming only a single link to DNA, are also extremely active against cancer cells, leading to exciting new strategies and candidates for drug development. Details of how these 'monofunctional' compounds work will be described. From the chemical principles learned in the process have emerged a much larger family of anticancer drug candidates, including those based on osmium and rhenium in addition to platinum.

Stephen J. Lippard, whose research spans the fields of biological and inorganic chemistry, is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lippard studies biological interactions involving metal ions, focusing on reactions and physical and structural properties of metal complexes. Such complexes can be useful as cancer drugs and as models for the active sites of metalloproteins. Metal ions also promote key biological reactions in enzymes and metal complexes can be employed to sense biological signaling agents.

This is event is jointly sponsored by the Integrated Cancer Research Center and Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Refreshments Served

Attend all or one session

SESSION 1 9:34-10:30

Opening session: "How to Connect, Convince, and Create Collaborative Relationships"

Target Audience-All Students

SESSION 2 10:45-12:00

Table Top Discussions

TARGET AUDIENCE-ALL STUDENTS

Topics: Transitioning from the Lab, Consulting, Transferable Skills, How to Secure a Post Doc, Research Resources, Degree Marketability, Law School and Engineering, Patient Agents, Working for the Federal Government, Authentic Networking etc.

 Select 4 Table Top Discussions topics and rotate every 15 minutes.

SESSION 3-12:20-12:25

 Job Options-Keeping Options Open (12:20-1:25) Panel 1

Panel members: Alums/grad students who changed directions and or followed the original path-advice about discovering or selecting a career path.

Target audience-Early graduate students 1st-3rd year.)

Advice: What can you do with a graduate degree besides work at a research institution?

Industry, Consulting, Government-what do these mean and how do academic, research skills convert to industry skills and or a career path? Must one decide on a career path within the first three years?” What can students do to keep options open and/or learn about career choices that are innovative, engaging, and challenging? Do coops and internships help and or matter?

Academic Job Search (12:20-1:25) Panel 2

All aspects of the Academic Job Search-Teaching Research

Target Audience-All seeking careers with Colleges and Universities

Advice: When and how do I begin my job search. Hiring cycles

Choosing a Career Path (12:20-1:25) Panel 3

Panel members: Alums in all areas who can discuss how they made their career choice-traditional or non-traditional path

Target Audience Advanced Students-1-2 years from completion, Masters students

Advice: Degree completion is near, so many career options! How are GT graduates utilizing education, transferable skills, interest, and strengths on the job? How did they find the job and how did they determine it was the “right” career path?

SESSION 4 1:34-2:45

Making the Right Impression and Details Matter? (1:35-2:45) Panel 4

Panel members: Recruiters, managers’ decision makers discuss what details matter.

Target audience: Early graduate students 1st-3rd year

Advice: Do you think about the details of your interactions with potential employers?  What do employers notice during interactions at company info sessions, career fairs, conferences, or while candidates wait in the lobby for the interview? Do recruiters remember students and or  make  judgments make based on  emails, demeanor, dress, and etiquette?  What questions should be asked (and to whom) prior to an interview? How do you recover if you make a mistake? Get inside information scoop from recruiters and decision makers.

Preparing for Success-Transition from Student to Professional-First Year on the Job-(1:35-2:45) Panel 5

Panel members: Alums with 1+ years’ experiencing success provide advice and HR professionals

Target Audience Advanced Students-1-2 years from completion

Advice: What can you do now to help you succeed in your first job?  How to should you prepare to be part of an established group/team? What should you expect in terms of work place politics? How should you learn about and adapt to the culture of a workplace? How can you establish important relationships? Recent alumni will discuss what they have done to thrive in their non-academic positions.

Little Things Matter-What Matters in the Academic Job Search (1:35-2:45) Panel 6

Panel members: Academics with Hiring Committee Experience

Target Audience Advanced Students-1-2 years from completion

Advice: Degree completion is near, so many career options! How are GT graduates utilizing education, transferable skills, interest, and strengths on the job? How did they find the job and how did they determine it was the “right” career path?

SESSION 5 3:00-4:25

Start-up Challenges-Common Misconceptions (3:00-4:25) Panel 7 

Panel member’s entrepreneurs, GT alums with within the first 5 years of Start-up

Target Audience Future Entrepreneurs

Advice: What do first time entrepreneurs typically overlook when starting a business?  What are common misconceptions about startups?  What can one do to prepare for the challenges? How long before a company is profitable? Does being an entrepreneur mean freedom from a schedule?

Negotiation the Industry Offer-What is Negotiable? (3:00-4:25) Panel 8

Panel members: Recruiters, Human Resources, Managers, successful negotiators

Target Audience-All students

Advice: What can you negotiate in a non-academic job? How does the negotiation process work? Can an organization be rescind an offer? Do employers expect graduate students to negotiate? Can other offers leverage a better salary? When should negotiation take place? Can I negotiate via email? How much time between initial offer and deadline for acceptance? Can a student ask for more time? Do recruiters share information?

Negotiating in Academic (3:00-4:25) Panel 9

Panel members:  Faculty who negotiated packages and or Academic negotiators

Target Audience Advanced Students-1-2 years from completion,

Advice: What can I negotiate? How much do I request? Resources for Deterring Salary, Research Assistants, Lab, Graduate and Undergraduate Assistants, Course Load etc.

Topics include: Transitioning from the Lab, Consulting, Transferable Skills, How to Secure a Post Doc, Research Resources, Degree Marketability, Law School and Engineering, Patient Agents, Working for the Federal Government, Authentic Networking etc.

Find detailed descriptions of each panel and register on the Graduate Career Symposium website at http://sga.gatech.edu/graduate/careersymp. 

Abstract:
It is widely acknowledged that the metastatic spread of cancer cells is responsible for most cancer related deaths. This is particularly true for ovarian cancer (OC) where the prospect of favorable outcome drops precipitously once cancer cells migrate beyond the confines of the primary tumor. Our laboratory is interested in using genomic approaches to better understand the molecular processes underlying OC metastasis and to develop novel therapeutic strategies to inhibit metastasis and improve patient outcome.  Preliminary evidence suggests that OC metastases can be established from low frequency sub-clones present within the primary tumor resulting in significant genetic divergence between primary and metastatic tumors.  Additional evidence indicates that the OC metastatic process involves epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) with a concomitant reduction in the sensitivity of metastasizing cells to standard (platinum-based) chemotherapies. Ectopic over-expression of members of the miR-200 family of microRNAs is emerging as an effective strategy to reverse EMT and increase the sensitivity of metastatic OC cells to standard chemotherapies.

______________

H. Trent Spencer, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Emory University

A major focus of the Gene Therapy Program in the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center is the development of therapeutics for hemophilia A, which is a disease caused by insufficient levels of the blood clotting protein factor VIII (fVIII).  We are conducting late stage preclinical testing to support a gene therapy clinical trial incorporating genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for persons with hemophilia A. In a series of recent studies, we have shown that the transplantation of genetically-engineered HSCs can restore factor VIII (fVIII) activity to curative levels in hemophilia A mice and that human HSCs are readily transduced with recombinant lentiviral vectors encoding a genetically-engineered fVIII transgene. Our gene therapy approach uses a bioengineered fVIII transgene designed at Emory University and contains critical high-expression sequences, which we have shown are necessary and sufficient to achieve therapeutic/curative fVIII expression levels. Using the bioengineered fVIII construct, designated ET-3, in preclinical murine studies we routinely observe normal fVIII activity levels in mice engrafted with only 1 – 5% genetically-modified hematopoietic cells. These engraftment levels are similar to those that have already been achieved in human HSC-based clinical gene therapy trials. We have generated extensive preclinical data using the ET-3 transgene, which demonstrate proof-of-concept that HSCs genetically engineered with ET-3-encoding lentivector, coupled with a non-myeloablative transplant regimen, can be used to treat and possibly cure hemophilia A. In addition, a favorable meeting with the FDA was held that provided the necessary guidance needed to finalize our preclinical data package and vector manufacturing. We are now preparing the necessary regulatory documents to conduct a first in man gene therapy clinical trial for hemophilia A.

Faculty host: Ian Copland 

Regardless of their biological mechanism of action, all DNA and RNA therapies are limited by one problem: drug delivery. DNA or RNA must be avoid clearance by the immune system, kidney, and spleen, access the target cell in a complex microenvironment, and enter the cytoplasm. Engineers and chemists have designed thousands of chemically distinct nanoparticles to target RNA or DNA. However, after they are synthesized, the expensive nature of animal experiments forces us to study whether the nanoparticles work in cell lines, even though drug delivery in cell culture does not recapitulate drug delivery in a living animal.

To expand the number of nanoparticles we could study in vivo, we designed a high throughput nanoparticle / DNA barcoding platform to study many nanoparticles in a single animal. We used a high throughput microfluidic device that produces small, stable nanoparticles; each nanoparticle was formulated to carry a distinct DNA barcode. This new barcoding provides robust, linear, and repeatable results in vivo, and generates data that matches functional delivery of genetic therapies. We will describe this new in vivo screening platform, and discuss its applications to targeted anti-cancer gene therapies.

Integrated Cancer Research Center
Georgia Tech has been a leader in the development of collaborative approaches to both cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. The mission of the Integrated Cancer Research Center (ICRC) is to facilitate integration of the diversity of technological, computational, scientific and medical expertise at Georgia Tech and partner institutions in a coordinated effort to develop improved cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.