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Monday, September 15
7:30 am Main Conference Registration and Morning Coffee
8:30 Welcome and Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
Michael Dorschner, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Pathology and Adjunct Professor, Genome Sciences and Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington; Director, Northwest Clinical Genomics Laboratory, Center for Precision Diagnostics
8:40 Northwest BioTrust: Consented Specimens, Medical Data and Patient Registry
John T. Slattery, Ph.D., Vice Dean, Research and Graduate Education, School of Medicine and Professor, Pharmacology and Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine - Biography
The guiding principles and formation of Northwest BioTrust, a system that collects and distributes consented medical data and specimens, and identifies patients interested in participating in clinical research from patients encountering the UW Medicine and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, will be discussed.
9:25 The National Biomarkers Development Alliance (NBDA): Advancing Biomarkers Development for Precision Medicine Beginning with Biospecimens
Carolyn Compton, M.D., Ph.D., CMO, National Biomarkers Development Alliance; CMO, Complex Adaptive Systems Institute; Adjunct Professor, Pathology, Mayo Medical School; Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University - Biography
The development of new robust biomarkers is essential to the realization of the vision of precision medicine. At present, the high costs and failure rates in biomarker development represent a significant roadblock to medical progress. The biomarker development process itself requires re-engineering, beginning with standards for biospecimens, to reduce the massive inefficiencies, fragmentation and failure rates that now characterize the system. This can only be accomplished through broad coordination of effort and consensus, which is the goal of the NBDA.
10:10 Coffee Break
10:30 Integrating the Principles of Preventative and Personalized Medicine to Advance Wellness
Nathan D. Price, Ph.D., Associate Director, Institute for Systems Biology - Biography
Radical, exponentially accelerating technological advancements are enabling individuals to gain greater control over their health than ever before. These endeavors focus on unlocking the power of an expanding array of scientific discoveries and deliver simple, actionable information to each individual to maximize health and minimize disease – even eliminating it at its earliest stages. I will discuss the beginnings of our ISB 100K wellness project aimed at providing a proof-of-concept study for these new approaches to optimizing wellness and minimizing disease.
11:15 Avatar Models of Rare Pediatric Cancer: An International Resource
James M. Olson, M.D., Ph.D., Member, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Professor, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University of Washington; Attending Physician, Seattle Children’s Hospital; Founder, Presage Biosciences and Blaze Bioscience - Biography
To enable drug discovery and development tailored to pediatric brain tumors, we created > 30 PDX models (avatars) of pediatric brain cancer. Fred Hutchinson Center’s lab team implanted surgically resected patient cells into mouse brains typically within hours of surgery. The tumors in mice were propagated through multiple passages and extensive genomic profiling was conducted to relate the avatars to the original patient sample. With philanthropic support, these models are available to investigators globally to enable discovery and translational science.
12:00 pm Close of Session
12:15 Luncheon Presentation (Sponsorship Opportunity Available) or Enjoy Lunch on Your Own
2:00 Chairperson’s Remarks
Walter C. Darbonne, Group Leader, Clinical Assays and Technologies Group, Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech, Inc.
2:05 Developing an Institutional Cancer Biorepository for Personalized Medicine
Angen Liu, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Specimen Accessioning Core, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University - Biography
High-quality human biospecimens and associated patient clinical information are key elements of a scientific infrastructure that supports discovery and identification of molecular biomarkers and diagnostic agents. The availability of low-cost whole-genome profiles of individual tumors has opened up new possibilities for personalized medicine to deliver appropriate treatments to individual patients with minimal toxicity. Reliable access to high-quality biospecimens with patient clinical information is crucial. With new genetic and proteomic techniques being developed continuously, the biorepository will greatly advance personalized medicine.
Featured Presentation
2:35 A Patient-Scientist Partnership to Characterize and Defeat a Rare Pediatric Cancer: Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Sanford M. Simon, Ph.D., Professor, Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics, The Rockefeller University
The ability to study rare cancers is limited by the number of patients that are seen in any one institution. This limitation was overcome by the formation of a patient-driven partnership. Patients used social media (Facebook and YouTube) to reach other patients to form a tissue repository, a patient medical registry, and to raise funds. Patients also worked in the lab on the analysis of genomic and cellular data which led to a publication in Science with two of the patients as authors. The results are forming the basis of two clinical trials.
3:05 Are You Prepared for the Next Research Question? Optimising the Value of Your Biospecimens Collections
Katheryn Shea, Vice President, Bioservices, Precision for Medicine
The clinical trials you’re running today can be the key to the next discovery. This talk will cover the essentials required to consent, collect and characterize your biospecimens for future use scenarios to streamline your biomarker research, reduce costs and optimize quality results and data.
3:35 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
4:15 Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) Models of Human Cancers towards Identifying Tumor-Initiating Cells and Discovery of Patient-Specific Therapeutics
Vinagolu K. Rajasekhar, MSc, MPhil, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Why, to date, have none of the conventional biobanks for patient tumor specimens delivered on our goals for a cancer cure? What is the live tumor tissue banking approach and how it can help recreate the original parent tumor heterogeneity and also form a renewable tumor tissue resource? How does live biobanking facilitate identification of cancer stem cells and discovery of patient-specific therapeutics? We discuss the importance of warm autopsies, live tissue bankonomics and sustainability of viable tumor banks.
4:45 Fluorescently Labeled Chimeric Anti-CEA Antibody Improves Detection and Resection of Gastrointestinal Cancers in Patient-Derived Orthotopic Xenograft (PDOX) Nude Mouse Models
Michael Bouvet, M.D., Professor, Surgery; Director, Endocrine Surgery; Co-Director, GI Cancer Unit, Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego - Biography
Surgeons face many challenges when attempting curative resection for gastrointestinal cancers. The ability to properly delineate tumor margins for complete resection is of utmost importance in achieving cure and giving the patient the best chance of prolonged survival. Using unique characteristics of the tumor to fluorescently label the tissue can delineate tumor margins from normal surrounding tissue, allowing improved precision of surgical resection. We discuss different methods of fluorescently labeling native tumor as well as the development of fluorescence laparoscopy and potential role for fluorescence-guided surgery in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.
5:15 Novel Technologies Enabling Exploratory Biomarker Analysis in the Clinic
Walter C. Darbonne, Group Leader, Clinical Assays and Technologies Group, Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech, Inc.
Biomarker analysis of tumor biopsies is essential for prognostic and predictive purposes, to identify new drug targets and to understand drug resistance mechanisms. Since the availability of archival patient samples are often extremely limited, we have focused our efforts to develop technologies that increase the sensitivity of molecular analysis of FFPE tissues, allow high degree of multiplexing and minimize the RNA/DNA input requirements for assays, while ensuring robust and high-quality data. Several such approaches will be discussed.
5:45 Welcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
6:30 Close of Day
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