Gordon Research Conference & Seminar:
Hormone Dependent Cancers
Sunday River Resort, Newry, ME - August 15-16 / 16-21, 2015
Jason Carroll, PhD
Co-chair
Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge (UK)
Jason did his PhD with Rob Sutherland and Liz Musgrove at the Garvan Institute, graduating in 2002. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral work with Myles Brown at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he was the first to map a transcription factor on a genome-wide scale. He moved to Cambridge, UK in 2006 to run his own lab and is currently a tenured senior group leader at Cancer Research UK and University of Cambridge. His lab is interested in understanding mechanisms of estrogen receptor function in breast cancer, with an emphasis on drug resistance.
Wayne Tilley, PhD
Chair
Dame Roma Mitchell Laboratory, IMVS-Hanson Institute, Adelaide (AU)
Wayne Tilley is Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories and the Adelaide Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. His research program is broadly focussed on hormonal carcinogenesis in breast and prostate cancer, with an emphasis on mechanisms of sex hormone signalling and the emergence of resistance to hormonal therapies used in the treatment of these diseases. His laboratory has highlighted the critical role of the androgen receptor (AR) in driving prostate cancer, including evidence for oncogenic potential of the AR, and pioneered research into understanding the pivotal role of the AR in counteracting the proliferative effects of estrogens in the breast. A large majority of breast cancers display AR immunopositivity and it has become clear that this receptor can exert a tumour suppressive or oncogenic influence depending on context. A major objective of our research is to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin the tumour suppressive or oncogenic activity of AR within breast cancer cells. Another research priority is the development of novel single or combinatorial treatments that better target the AR in prostate cancer that may also be useful in the treatment of certain subtypes of breast cancer and the identification of biomarkers of treatment response.
Meet the Organizers
Matthew Sikora, PhD
Chair
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA)
Matt earned his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan in 2011. Working with James Rae, his graduate work explored hormone metabolism in breast cancer endocrine resistance. Matt then moved to the University of Pittsburgh Women’s Cancer Research Center to work with Steffi Oesterreich. At the WCRC, his postdoctoral research focuses on understanding endocrine response and resistance in invasive lobular carcinoma, an understudied breast cancer subtype. Matt is a Dept. of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Postdoctoral Fellow.
Renée de Leeuw, PhD
Co-chair
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia (USA)
Renée de Leeuw is from the Netherlands, and earned a BS in molecular sciences and a MS in biomedical research at Wageningen University, which included an internship at Organon Pharmaceuticals. She pursued her PhD in molecular endocrinology and cancer biology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, and successfully defended her thesis “Molecular understanding of tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer” at Leiden University. Renée joined Dr. Karen Knudsen’s laboratory in 2012, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program for her project on the role of the retinoblastoma gene in castration resistant prostate cancer.
