March 9th: Norsk Hydros Fund for Cancer Research Guest Lecture Allan Balmain: Systems Genetics analysis of Cancer Complexity
Allan Balmain - professor in Cancer Genetics, UCSF Biomedical Sciences, Co-Leader, Cancer Genetics Program, Director, Genome Analysis Core Facility, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center - is invited to give the upcoming "Norsk Hydros Fund for Cancer Research Guest Lecture".
When: March 9th, 2011, 2pm, Big Auditorium, IKF-Forskerbygget
Title: "Systems Genetics analysis of Cancer Complexity".
Dr. Balmain's main research interests have been the elucidation of the genetic basis of multistage carcinogenesis, with particular emphasis on mouse models of chemically induced skin tumor development.
He is the author of > 200 publications, many in journals like Nature, Nature Genetics and Science.
Dr. Balmain earned his PhD in chemistry at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and carried out postdoctoral work at the University of Strasbourg, France funded by a European Program Fellowship, and in Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Dr. Balmain then led a research group at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, and was also Director of Laboratory Research in the Department of Medical Oncology at the University. He moved to the US in 1997 as Vice President of
Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and in 1999 to UCSF, where he is presently the Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Genetics.
Dr. Balmain's main research interests have been the elucidation of the genetic basis of multistage carcinogenesis, with particular emphasis on mouse models of chemically induced skin tumor development. His strategy has been to identify the sequence of somatic genetic alterations, which are associated with discrete stages of tumorigenesis: initiation, promotion, progression to locally invasive lesions and development of metastases. His group has also identified genes and pathways associated with cancer susceptibility in different mouse strains and in human populations. His research at present is focused on systems approaches to analysis of cancer susceptibility and progression using computational biology and gene network analysis. He is the author of > 200 publications, many in journals like Nature, Nature Genetics and Science.
Some recent publications:
Genetic architecture of mouse skin inflammation and tumor susceptibility. Nature, February 2009.
Systems genetics analysis of cancer susceptibility: from mouse models to humans. Nat Rev Genet. 2009
Network analysis of skin tumor progression identifies a rewired genetic architecture affecting inflammation and tumor susceptibility. Genome Biol. 2011 Jan 18;12(1):R5
Links:
Allan Balmain'g home page from UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center