Keynote Speakers Biographies
Cancer Epigenetics
Dr. Bradley E. Bernstein is a Professor of Pathology at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the Director of the Epigenomics Program at the Broad Institute. Dr. Bernstein’s research focuses on epigenetic gene regulation. His lab studies how gene activity is controlled by noncoding regulatory elements called ‘enhancers’, and by the way the genes are packaged into chromatin. He is a leader of the NIH’s ENCODE project that is mapping the locations and functions of all noncoding elements in the human genome. His work is notable for the identification of chromatin structures that underlie stem cell pluripotency, the annotation of enhancers associated with autoimmunity and other diseases, and the characterization of epigenetic aberrations that turn on oncogenes and drive tumors.
Dr. Bernstein holds the Bernard and Mildred Kayden Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair and is an Elizabeth and Michael Ruane Endowed Scholar in Endocrine Pathology. He received his B.S. from Yale University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, before completing a residency in clinical pathology and postdoctoral research at Harvard University. Honors include an Early Career Scientist Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, an American Cancer Society Professorship and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.
Creating A Cancer Dependency map
Dr. William C. Hahn is the William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is the Chief Scientific Officer and interim Chief Operating Officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Hahn has made numerous discoveries that have informed our current molecular understanding of cancer and have formed the foundation of new translational studies. Dr. Hahn and his colleagues helped demonstrate that activation of the reverse transcriptase telomerase plays an essential role in malignant transformation. This observation provided the means to create novel experimental model systems to identify and characterize the cooperative genetic interactions that lead to malignant transformation. Together with his colleagues at the Broad Institute, he helped develop genome scale tools and technology to perform somatic cell genetics in human cells. His laboratory has pioneered the use of integrated functional genomic approaches to identify and validate cancer targets. The tools, models and approaches that his laboratory has developed are widely used worldwide to discover and validate molecularly targeted cancer therapies. Dr. Hahn and his collaborators are now engaged in clinical trials testing whether inhibition both of new oncogenes or synthetic lethal partners identified by these approaches will lead to clinical responses.
Dr. Hahn has served as the President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and has been elected to the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Hahn has been the recipient of many honors and awards including the Wilson S. Stone Award from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for outstanding research in cancer (2000), a Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute (2001), the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine (2010), the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from AACR (2015) and the Claire and Richard Morse Award (2019).
Industry Talk
Dr. Stefanie Žentelis is a Research Scientist in Cell Biology & Immunology at AbCellera
Combating COVID-19: Identifying a potential drug candidate for human testing in 90 days
AbCellera’s antibody discovery platform combines high-throughput microfluidics, machine learning, bioinformatics and genomics to identify new first-in-class drugs faster. In 90 days, neutralizing antibodies were identified from a convalescent patient sample and a lead candidate is currently being studied in the world’s first clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 antibody treatment.
Dr. Jenna Moccia is a Senior Manager, Scientific Marketing at StemCell