Conference Program

David I Smith received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1978. His first academic position was at Wayne State University School of Medicine and in 1996 he moved to the Mayo Clinic as a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He is also the Chairman of the Technology Assessment Group for the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. His laboratory utilizes next-generation sequencing to study the different ways that human papillomavirus can cause cancer in different tissues. His group also studies the common fragile sites which are regions of profound instability found in all individuals.

David I. Smith (iCancer 2019)Mayo Clinic,USA

09.45-10.25

Sherry X. Yang is Chief of National Clinical Target Validation Laboratory, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Yang joined the NCI in 2001 upon completion of fellowship training from the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. Her research interests include clinical target validation and biomarker science towards precision oncology. Dr. Yang’s laboratory focuses on the predictive and prognostic biomarkers of targeted cancer therapeutics and chemotherapy in breast cancer and lung cancer as well as other cancer types. She is recipient of several biomarkers-related awards and innovations, and an editor of Handbook of Therapeutic Biomarkers in Cancer, 2nd edition.

Sherry Yang (iCancer 2019)NIH- National Cancer Institute,USA

10.30-11.00

Abdulkader Rahmo finished his degree in Biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich 1988, completed his PhD at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles 1994 did my postdoc at a major clinical laboratory in Munich Germany. In 1995 he established and supervised a large private clinical laboratory specialized in molecular and genetic diagnostics in Damascus. In 2001 , he became a member of the faculty of medicine at the Uni. Damascus and established the laboratory for genetic research. He Co-Founded at 2004 the National Commission for Biotechnology where He became the head of the medical Biotechnology section. He taught molecular biology and medical genetics at the International University for Science and Technology IUST, and molecular epidemiology at the Ecole Doctoral of the Lebanese University. He moved to the USA in 2013 and was visiting scientist at Western University of Health Sciences. His current efforts are focused towards establishing and promoting a biotech company based on my stem cell research contributions. His current research and development centers on two major fields: regenerative medicine, and biotech pharmaceutical development and production. He is also interested in issues related to knowledge management in scientific organizations and research policy.

Abdulkader Rahmo (iCancer 2019)SMSbiotech,USA

11.25-11.45

Hariharan Easwaran serves as Assistant Professor of Oncology in the Sydney Kimmel Cancer center at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Easwaran received his PhD from Humboldt University, Berlin, where he defined the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of DNA methylation by the key epigenetic enzyme, DNA methyltransferase-1 (DNMT1). He completed his post-doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Steve Baylin where he studied the nature of genes undergoing aberrant DNA methylation in cancer, and showed that the aberrantly silenced genes may help impart “stemness” to cancer cells. Dr. Easwaran’s current research focuses on the roles of epigenetic mechanisms in cancer etiology. The long-term goal of his group involves understanding the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary dynamics of epigenetic changes, with special emphasis on DNA methylation, using various early tumorigenesis models. His work seeks to harness this knowledge for cancer detection and treatment.

Hariharan Easwaran (iCancer 2019)The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,USA

11.50-12.10

Gianluca Valentini has completed his Post-Graduate Program in Nuclear Medicine at the age of 29 years from La Sapienza University in Rome. In 1985 he started research with PET-SCAN, working with several American and Canadian facilities (medical centers such as Houston, Montreal, Washington, and Baltimore). He carried out the first experimental production of radioisotopes in 1987 at the National Nuclear Physics Institute in Frascati. In 1996 he founded AMG (Advanced Medicine Group), the European pioneer group in the radiopharmaceuticals research. He is the scientific director of ACOM spa (Advanced Center Oncology Macerata) since 1999. ACOM has developed several innovative technologies for cancer diagnosis and therapy. He has several patents of new radiopharmaceuticals.

Gianluca Valentini (iCancer 2019)Advanced Center Oncology Macerata (ACOM),Italy

12.15-12.35

Dr. Gudipally is currently pursuing an Internal Medicine Residency at Mercy Catholic Medical Center. As an African-American health promoter, she serves and spreads awareness and would like to pursue the Hematology/Oncology fellowship.

Sindusha Gudipally (iCancer 2019)Mercy Catholic Medical Center,USA

12.40-13.00

Abstract: 3-Bromopyruvate (3BP) is a promising powerful general anticancer agent. Unfortunately, 3BP release faces many practical and biochemical problems in clinical human oncology, for example, 3BP induces burning venous sensation (during intravenous infusion) and rapid inactivation by thiol groups of glutathione and proteins. 3BP exhibits resistance in glutathione-rich tumors without being able to exert selective targeting. 3BP does not cross the blood-brain barrier and cannot treat nervous system tumors. Importantly, 3BP cannot persist in tumor tissues due to the phenomenon of enhanced permeability and retention effect. Here, the author presents the practical solutions for clinical problems facing 3BP use in clinical oncology, based on over 10 years of experience in 3BP research. Crude (unformulated 3BP that is purchased from chemical companies without being formulated in liposomes or other nanocarriers) should not be administered in clinical oncology. Instead, 3BP is better formulated with liposomes, polyethylene glycol (PEG), PEGylated liposomes (stealth liposomes) or perillyl alcohol that are used currently with many chemotherapeutics for treating clinical tumors in cancer patients. Formulating 3BP with targeted liposomes, for example, with folate, transferrin or other ligands, improves tumor targeting. Formulating 3BP with liposomes, PEG, stealth liposomes or perillyl alcohol may improve its pharmacokinetics, hide it from thiols in the circulation, protect it from serum proteins and enzymes, prevent burning sensation, prolong 3BP's longevity and facilitate crossing the BBB. Formulating 3BP with stealth liposomes protects 3BP from the reticuloendothelial cells. Liposomal 3BP formulations may retain 3BP better inside the relatively large tumor capillary pores (abolish enhanced permeability and retention effect) sparing normal tissues, facilitate new delivery routes for 3BP (eg, topical and intranasal 3BP administration using perillyl alcohol) and improve cancer cytotoxicity. Formulating 3BP may be promising in overcoming many obstacles in clinical oncology.

Salah El Sayed (iCancer 2019)Taibah University,Saudi Arabia

13.50-14.10

Bianca Gutfilen has completed his PhD at the age of 30 years from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She is Founder and Head of the Laboratory of Labeling of Cells and Molecules (LMCM)/UFRJ, created in 2002. She has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute journals. She has experience in the area of Nuclear Medicine, with emphasis on Radiopharmacy, on the following topics: cancer, infection, transplants, cell therapies, stem cells, leukocytes and antibodies.

Bianca Gutfilen (iCancer 2019) Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brazil

14.15- 14.35

Dr. Zhang is the founder and CEO of Yinuoke Ltd, a biotech startup developing novel cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Zhang graduated from Jilin University with a doctoral degree of immunology in 2007. From 2008 to 2012, Dr. Zhang did a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine studying cancer immunology and immunotherapy. After the postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Zhang continued to study cancer immunology for another four years at Stanford School of Medicine, focusing on the immune system dynamics during cancer progression and its impact on the host. In 2016, Dr. Zhang founded Yinuoke Ltd., to discover and develop innovative cancer treatments by targeting the tumor-induced immune disorder.

Lingbing Zhang (iCancer 2019)Yinuoke Ltd,USA

14 : 40-15 : 00

Abstract: Death caused by prostate cancer (PC) is mainly due to metastasis, and the 5-year survival rate of metastatic PC is only 28%. In the setting of our mouse model for metastatic PC, we sought to investigate genes which regulate the switch from benign primary PC to lethal metastatic PC. Specifically, we searched for proteins that interact with Myc, an oncogene that confers an aggressive metastatic phenotype to prostate tumours. In doing so, we identified a phosphatase, Phlpp2, as one such regulator of Myc. Our mouse model demonstrated that complete loss of Phlpp2 blocks prostate tumor growth and metastasis burden. In fact, when Phlpp2 is deleted in these mice, only 7% develop metastatic disease compared to 60% without the Phlpp2 deletion. Furthermore, we show that Phlpp2 activates Myc by regulating its stability. Phlpp2 deletion does not affect Myc transcript levels, but decreases Myc protein expression by over 75%. Furthermore, the half-life of Myc decreases from 19.3 to 12.7 minutes upon Phlpp2 deletion. Additionally, we provide evidence that Phlpp2 dephosphorylates the threonine 58 (T58) site of Myc, thus directly increasing its stability. Importantly, we show that a small molecule inhibitor of Phlpp2 suppresses Myc and causes cell death. Myc concentration decreases in a dose-dependent manner following treatment with a Phlpp2 inhibitor, which coincides with a dose-dependent increase in cell death. A similar trend is seen in the PC3 cell line derived from human PC. In sum, our findings reveal that Phlpp2 represents a possible druggable vulnerability for targeting Myc in metastatic PC.

Vincent D'Andrea (iCancer 2019)Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell,USA

13 : 05-13 : 20

Abstract: The epigenetic modifications are used as biomarkers for therapeutic development of many cancer types. Glioblastoma is one of the most types of malignant brain tumor in adults, it can grow and spread quickly causing harm to health brain. The major challenges for treating of glioblastoma are drug resistance by cancer cells. In the present study, we showed the therapeutic efficacy of two chemical compounds are (suberhydroxmic acid) (SAHA) and N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) retinamide (4HPR), and their combination to induce apoptosis in glioblastoma cell line C6 and T98G in vitro. The combination between SAHA and 4HR are contributed in increase enhancement death of cancer cells by activating the pro-apoptotic family pathway (Bax) family inside cell and inhibiting anti apoptotic family pathway Bcl2. Also, the synergism of SAHA and 4HPR led to induce cell cycle arrest and reduce cancer cell invasion. (4-HPR) and SAHA significantly stimulated astrocytic differentiation in glioblastoma cell line C6 and T98g via downregulating proteins expression involved in cells dedifferentiation and proliferation such human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), DNA-binding protein inhibitor ID-2, and c-MYC and upregulating Gila fibric acidic protein (GFAP) induced to cell differenation. Also, combination of two drugs are attributed in reduce invasion cell by downregulating MMP2 and MMP9. Hence, combination of 4-HPR and SAHA might be importing for controlling growth and differentiation of glioblastoma cells. and they consider promising agent in the treatment of glioblastoma cells.

Firas khathayer (iCancer 2019)University of South Carolina,USA

15 : 25-13 : 50