Through an ambitious scientific effort called EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project, world-class scientists are collaborating to develop a blood test that will detect breast cancer in its beginning stages, when it can be cured. World-class scientists funded by Women's Cancer Research Fund include:
EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Oversight Committee
Richard D. Klausner, M.D.
The Column Group
Co-Chair
Dr. Richard Klausner formerly served as the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI),where he led one of the world's largest research and health agencies, creating successful national and international programs aimed at applying science and technology to improving the public health. Following his service at the National Cancer Institute Dr. Klausner was the global health executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health program, whose overarching goal is to improve global health equity. Dr. Klausner is currently a managing partner of The Column Group, a strategy-based venture fund. In addition, Dr. Klausner serves as an advisor to the Prime Ministers of India and Norway. Dr. Klausner is well known for his work in cell and molecular biology. Dr. Klausner has served as chief of the cell biology and metabolism branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He has served on numerous advisory committees and is the past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and several books, and has received numerous awards and honors. Dr. Klausner has served as a senior fellow at the National Academies of Science, advisor to the presidents of the Academies for counter-terrorism, and liaison to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In addition, Dr. Klausner led the efforts of the National Academies of Science to write standards for science education for the United States. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and the America Academy of Arts and Sciences.
David Baltimore, Ph. D., Nobel Laureate
California Institute of Technology
Dr. David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, formerly President of California Institute of Technology for nine years, is one of the world's most influential biologists. Awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 37 for research in virology, Baltimore has profoundly influenced national science policy on such issues as recombinant DNA research and the AIDS epidemic. Before coming to Caltech, Dr. Baltimore was an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was founding director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, and served from the institute's creation in 1982 to 1990, when he became president of Rockefeller University. His career has been distinguished by his dual contribution to biological research and to national science policy. Dr. Baltimore helped pioneer the molecular study of animal viruses, and his research in this field had profound implications for understanding cancer and, later, AIDS. In the mid-1970's, along with several other eminent biologists, he played a pivotal role in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research and also established standards that are followed by the genetics community to this day. Dr. Baltimore has been a major figure in Washington as head of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee from 1996-2002, and also in 1986 as cochair of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine's committee on a National Strategy for AIDS. He was appointed to the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and is now serving as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the 1999 National Medal of Science.
Joe W. Gray, Ph. D.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dr. Joe Gray received undergraduate training in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Kansas State University in 1972. He then joined the Biomedical Sciences Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he became increasingly active in cancer research, specifically in the development of a broad range of analytic techniques useful in the study of human and model cancers. Dr. Gray moved to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Radiation Oncology in 1991 to pursue his interest in clinical applications of these tools. He established and headed the Division of Molecular Cytometry in the Department of Laboratory Medicine until 1997, when this unit merged with the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was Interim Director of the UCSF Cancer Center from 1995 to 1997 and became Program Leader for Cancer Genetics and Breast Oncology in the Cancer Center. He has been Principal Investigator of the Bay Area Breast Cancer Specialized Projects of Research Excellence (SPORE) since 1996. Dr. Gray accepted a position as Division Director of Life Sciences and Associate Director of Life and Environmental Sciences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in April 2003. He continues as a member of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center and as Program Leader for Breast Oncology and Principal Investigator of the Bay Area Breast Cancer SPORE with an appointment as Adj. Professor of Laboratory Medicine. Major awards include the Radiation Research Society Research Award (1985); USDOE. E.O. Lawrence Award (1986); Election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1996), an Exceptional Service Award from the USDOE (1997); the Schiffer Award from the Cell Proliferation Society (1999); Boerhave Professor, Leiden University, the Netherlands (2000); the Curt Stern Award from the American Society for Human Genetics (2001), a Leadership Award from the NCI SPORE Program (2003), an Alumni Fellow award from Kansas State University (2005), a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Colorado School of Mines (2005), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland (2005) and a DOD Innovator Award in 2007. Dr. Gray was appointed as a Member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute in 2004.
C. Kent Osborne, M.D.
Breast Center Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. C. Kent Osborne was born in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his AB and MD degrees from the University of Missouri, both with honors. He completed his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1974, and then spent three years as a clinical associate at the Medicine Branch, Breast Cancer Section of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1977 he took his first faculty position at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he rose to the rank of Professor and became Director of the Division of Medical Oncology in 1992. In 1999 Dr. Osborne and his team moved to Baylor College of Medicine to develop a new multidisciplinary Breast Center.
Dr. Osborne is a physician as well as a research investigator. He has focused on breast cancer his entire career. His research interests include understanding the biology of breast cancer and then developing new treatment approaches for the disease. He has published extensively on the mechanisms by which hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen inhibit breast cancer growth and how breast cancers become resistant to these therapies. He has also studied the role of various growth factors in breast cancer development and progression, and more recently how these other growth factors can interact with estrogen to stimulate tumor growth. For more than a decade Dr. Osborne was Chairman of the Breast Cancer Committee for the Southwest Oncology Group, where he directed numerous nationwide clinical trials investigating new treatment strategies for breast cancer patients. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Baylor Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant, one of only nine such grants nationwide and the only one in Texas. He also directs a large program project grant from the National Cancer Institute, the goal of which is to identify the gene pathways important in breast cancer growth and then to block these pathways for therapeutic purposes. Among his previous awards are the Komen Foundation Award and the Brinker International Award for Breast Cancer Research. He recently received the European Institute of Oncology Annual Breast Cancer Award for 2004 and the Jacqueline Seroussi Award in Israel in 2005. In the Baylor College of Medicine, he is Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Breast Center. He is also the Director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center that is under development at the College. He currently holds the Tina and Dudley Sharp Chair in Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Lawrence D. Platt, M.D.
Center for Fetal Medicine and Women's Ultrasound
Dr. Larry Platt is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is the director of the Center for Fetal Medicine and Women's Ultrasound in Los Angeles. He is the current president of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG). He has authored more than 270 peer-reviewed publications, 52 chapters in medical books, and has four books to his credit. He is the current commissioning editor of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the official journal of ISUOG. In addition, he is on the editorial board of several other prestigious medical journals. Dr. Platt has been elected to numerous prestigious professional organizations and has served in many leadership roles for such professional societies. He is a past president the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and continues to serve on the organization's numerous committees. He also currently serves as the AIUM's administrative councilor to the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. He is past president of the Los Angeles OB-GYN Society and is the current and founding treasurer of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Foundation. His research interests include ultrasound in prenatal diagnosis, 2-, 3-, and 4-dimensional ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology, and the biophysical assessment of fetal condition. Dr. Platt is a sought-after speaker and has participated in more than 350 educational symposia. He has received numerous honors and awards and has been recognized in America's Best Doctors for the last 12 years. He serves on numerous community charitable and education organizations. He serves on the oversight committee for the Entertainment Industry Foundation Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project. He is chairman of the Breast Ultrasound Foundation of the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography and is a member of the board of trustees for Touro College.
Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate
Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Phillip Sharp, currently Institute Professor, joined the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974 and served as director of the center for six years, from 1985 to 1991, before taking over as head of the Department of Biology, a position he held for the next eight years. More recently, he was founding director of the McGovern Institute, a position he held from 2000 to 2004. Dr. Sharp's research interests have centered on the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer and the mechanisms of RNA splicing. His landmark work (1977) provided one of the first indications of the startling phenomenon of "discontinuous genes" in mammalian cells. This discovery, which fundamentally changed scientists' understanding of the structure of genes, earned Dr. Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. His lab has now turned its attention to understanding how RNA molecules act as switches to turn genes on and off (RNA interference). These newly discovered processes have revolutionized cell biology and could potentially generate a new class of therapeutics. Dr. Sharp has authored more than 300 scientific papers. His work has earned him numerous cancer-research awards and presidential and national scientific-board appointments. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Science. Dr. Sharp earned a B.A. degree from Union College, Ky., and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois. In 1978 he co-founded Biogen (now Biogen Idec), and in 2002 he co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, an early stage therapeutics company. He serves on the boards of both companies.
Ellen V. Sigal, Ph.D.
Friends of Cancer Research
Dr. Ellen V. Sigal is the founder and chairperson of Friends of Cancer Research ("Friends"), a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit organization. Friends is dedicated to accelerating the nation's progress toward prevention and treatment of cancer by mobilizing public support for cancerresearch funding and providing education on key public-policy issues. Dr. Sigal serves on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, the National Institutes of Health Foundation Board (she chairs its Public Private Initiatives Committee), and the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation Board. Dr. Sigal holds leadership positions with a broad range of cancer-advocacy and public-policy organizations, and leadership positions with academic health centers including Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Johns Hopkins Cancer Center Advisory Council and the Howard University Cancer Center Board of Visitors. She serves on the C-Change (formerly the National Dialogue on Cancer Research) Research Committee, and is a member of the Entertainment Industry Foundation Oversight Committee for the Biomarker Discovery Project. During her more than 20-year commitment to cancer research, Dr. Sigal has served in a number of critical public positions. She served on the National Institutes of Health prestigious Director's Council of Public Representatives from 2003-2006. She was a presidential appointee to the National Cancer Advisory Board from 1992-1998, where she chaired the Budget and Planning Committee that oversees the federal cancer budget. In 1998, Dr. Sigal was named vice chairman of the board of the March, a national grass-roots advocacy group that brought thousands of volunteers to Washington to liaise with Congress and to set a new advocacy agenda for cancer research and treatment. She is a past member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation Board. Dr. Sigal has also been instrumental in harnessing the energies of Hollywood on behalf of cancer research, serving as president of The Creative Community Task Force for Cancer Research. For her efforts on behalf of cancer research advocacy, Dr. Sigal was awarded the Association of American Cancer Institutes' 2004 Public Service Award and was honored by Washingtonian magazine as a 2004 Washingtonian of the Year. In 2004 she was also honored by Research! America, the George Washington University Cancer Institute, and the International Spirit of Life Foundation. Dr. Sigal was awarded the 2002 American Society of Clinical Oncology Special Recognition Award, the 1999 Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center National Leadership Award, and the 1998 American Association for Cancer Research National Leadership Award.
EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Steering Committee
Lee H. Hartwell, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Lee Hartwell is president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington. Dr. Hartwell's primary research contributions were in the identification of genes that control cell division in yeast, including those necessary for the division process as well as those necessary for the fidelity of genome reproduction. Subsequently, many of these genes have been found to control cell division in humans and often to be the site of alteration in cancer. Recently Dr. Hartwell's interests have turned to how we can use the enormous knowledge that has been gained about biology to improve health care. He believes that the most efficient path is to improve molecular diagnostics to identify individuals at high risk for disease, detect cancers and other diseases at an early stage when they can be cured, provide prognostic information and monitor therapeutic response. Dr. Hartwell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Award in Cancer Research and the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, M.D., FACP
University of Texas
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
As a member of the M. D. Anderson faculty since 1976, Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi has been instrumental in developing combination chemotherapy for previously inoperable breast tumors and for improving multidisciplinary treatment for patients with all stages of breast cancer, including advanced disease. He and his colleagues have conducted extensive clinical trials that have been widely incorporated into standard practices for managing breast cancer and have contributed to increased survival for many patients. His research studies have been supported by The Breast Cancer Research Foundation since 1993. Dr. Hortobagyi is widely known for a landmark study he initiated in1974 as a fellow in developmental therapeutics at M. D. Anderson. His research involved giving presurgical chemotherapy to patients whose breast tumors had already spread to other parts of the body and concluded that many large tumors could be reduced as much as 50 percent, then removed surgically. In 1988, he published a 10-year study that showed a three-drug regimen administered before surgery and radiation therapy after surgery produced promising results for breast-cancer patients with advanced disease. Among major honors for his breast-cancer research, Dr. Hortobagyi has received the 1999 Vermeille Medal from the City of Paris and the 1997 Brinker International Award for Clinical Research. In1997 he also received the Japanese Surgical Society Medal and the Sir Peter Freyer Medal in Galway, Ireland. He was co-founder of the World Summit Against Cancer, an international group of scientists, health-care professionals, patient advocates, economists, lawmakers and celebrities who are campaigning to ensure all people worldwide receive the most advanced treatment for cancer. In September 2005 he received an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, was named the 2005 World Leader in Oncology by the Mexican Society of Oncology and received the Mario Rabinovich Prize from the Argentine Association of Clinical Oncology and the Latin-American-Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology. In April of 2006 Dr. Hortobagyi received the American Society of Breast Disease Pathfinder Award, and in November 2006 received the prestigious Premio Luigi Castagnetta (Luigi Castagnetta Prize), Progetto Amazzone, in Palermo (Sicily), Italy.
Dr. Hortobagyi has contributed more than 500 articles to peer-reviewed scientific journals, over 300 invited papters, and over 100 textbooks. He also is a past president of the International Society of Breast Diseases. His professional society activities include membership in the American Society of Clinical Oncology, where he has served on various task forces, chaired committees, served on the Board of Directors, and in 2005 was elected President for the term 2006-2007. He is currently Immediate Past President of ASCO. He chairs the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project; and served as President of the International Society of Senology. He served as a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union Against Cancer, and the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Progress Review Group. Dr. Hortobagyi is on the Advisory Board of The Breast Cancer EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Page 6 of 12 www.eifoundation.org\wcrf Research Foundation, chairs the Health Advisory Board of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Breast Cancer International Research Group, and was a member of the Integration Panel of the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Department of Defense. Dr. Hortobagyi is Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Breast Health Global Initiative. Dr. Hortobagyi assumed the role of Breast Cancer Committee Chair of the Southwest Oncology Group in June of 2007.
Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.
Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard
Dr. Eric Lander is founding director of the Broad Institute. As one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project, Lander and colleagues are using these findings to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the basis of human disease. Lander is also professor of biology at MIT, professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He founded the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research in 1990. This Center became part of the newly founded Broad Institute in 2003. Over the past 15 years, Lander and colleagues have developed many of the key tools and generated many of the key information resources of modern mammalian genomics. They have also applied these tools and data to pioneer new ways to understand the basis of disease. Their work includes: mapping and sequencing of the human, mouse and other genomes; understanding the functional elements encoded in genomes through comparative analysis; understanding the genetic variation in the human population and its relationship to disease susceptibility; understanding the distinctive cellular signatures of diseases and of response to drugs; and understanding the mutations underlying cancer. They have also developed new analytical and laboratory techniques for genomics, which have been applied to a wide range of common diseases, including cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and many other genetic illnesses. Lander's honors and awards include the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship in 1987, the Woodrow Wilson Prize for Public Service from Princeton University in 1998, the City of Medicine Award in 2001, the Gairdner Foundation International Award of Canada in 2002, and the AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology in 2004. He was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 1999. He has served on governing and advisory boards for various government agencies, academic institutions, scientific societies and corporations. Lander earned his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1978 and Ph.D. in mathematics from Oxford University in 1981 as a Rhodes Scholar. He was an assistant and associate professor of managerial economics at the Harvard Business School from 1981-1990.
In addition to his research, Lander is an enthusiastic teacher. He has taught MIT's core introductory biology course for a decade and, in 1992, won the Baker Memorial Award for Undergraduate Teaching at MIT. He has lectured to both scientific and lay audiences about the medical and social implications of genetics, and delivered a special Millennium Lecture at the White House in 2000.
EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Scientists
Ruedi H. Aebersold, Ph.D.
Institute for Systems Biology
Dr. Ruedi Aebersold's research focuses on developing new methods and technologies for quantitative proteomics and for applying this emerging technology to enhance our understanding of the structure, function and control of complex biological systems. Current applications of quantitative proteomics technology are directed toward discovering protein markers that differentiate cancer cells from their normal counterparts, investigating the mechanisms of fundamental cellular processes by the comparative analysis of the gene and protein expression profiles in cells at different states, and studying medical microbiology. Dr. Aebersold is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Molecular Systems Biology, Journal of Proteome Research and Molecular BioSystems. He is the 2002 recipient of the Widmer Award, the ASMS Biemann Medal, and the World Technology Network Award in the biotechnology category. In November 2004, he assumed an appointment as professor of Systems Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, ETH-Zürich and faculty of natural sciences, University of Zürich. He is a professor and founding member of the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Wash.
Steven Carr, Ph. D.
Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard
Dr. Steven Carr, a senior scientific leader in protein biochemistry and proteomics leads the Proteomics platform at the Broad Institute. In this capacity, Dr. Carr and his group work with biologists to systematically identify proteins and their modifications - such as phosphorylation, whose abundance or form is modulated by disease or drug action - as well as define physical and functional associations of protein constituents of regulatory and signaling pathways involved in health and disease. These studies involve analysis of complex biological specimens, such as tumor tissues or patient blood, using protein chemistry and advanced separation methods together with state-of-the-art mass spectrometry. For the last 25 years, Dr. Carr's research has focused on applying and developing proteomics methods in order to understand the mechanism of action of drug candidates and build an understanding of protein targets and their roles in disease. In particular, he is noted for developing methods for selective enrichment, detection and quantitation of posttranslational modifications, such as phosphorylation and glycosylation, in the proteome. He has over 125 publications on development and use of proteomics and biological mass spectrometry. Dr. Carr received his B.S. in 1976 from Union College and Ph.D. from MIT in 1980. After four years of postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and MIT, he joined SmithKline Pharmaceuticals (now GlaxoSmithKline), becoming director of Computational and Structural Sciences in 1997. Most recently he led protein science and proteomics groups at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, prior to joining the Broad in 2004.
Francisco J. Esteva, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Texas
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Esteva received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Zaragoza School of Medicine in Spain. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center (Camden, NJ). He continued on to Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington, DC) for a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at the Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Center. Dr. Esteva is board certified in medical oncology, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Esteva is a respected academic speaker, with invited presentations at hospitals, research institutions, and meetings nationally and internationally.
Dr. Esteva's clinical research activities are centered on the development of targeted therapies for locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer. Agents evaluated under his direction include monoclonal antibodies (e.g., trastuzumab), small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (e.g., lapatinib) and gene therapy (e.g., bcl-2 antisense oligonucleotides). One of the EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Page 8 of 12 www.eifoundation.org\wcrf major focuses of this program is to identify and validate novel predictive markers of response to targeted therapies for breast cancer. In addition to prospective clinical trials, Dr. Esteva completed retrospective studies to determine the prognostic and/or predictive roles of Jab-1, p27kip1, phospho-p38 MAPK and a multi-gene RT-PCR assay (Oncotype DX) in breast cancer tissue.
Dr. Esteva's laboratory research has been oriented toward discovering molecular mechanisms of drug resistance, and developing new treatment strategies for breast cancer. Recent findings from his laboratory include: 1) demonstration that targeting HER-2 with two different antibodies (trastuzumab and pertuzumab) results in a synergistic induction of apoptosis in breast cancer cells; 2) development and characterization of trastuzumab resistant breast cancer cells. Mechanisms of resistance identified using this experimental model include dowregulation of the cell cycle inhibitor p27kip1; cross-talk between HER-2 and the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1; and PTEN loss; 3) serial assessment of serum levels of HER-2 extracelullar domain in patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with trastuzumab-based therapy. A retrospective study showed that a decline in circulating HER2 ECD correlates with improved disease-free survival.
Dr. Esteva has served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)'s Scientific Program Committee and Education Committee; and as faculty for the ASCO annual meeting for several years. He is a member of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) Breast Cancer Committee. He was awarded a Career Development Award from the NCI in 1999. He is a co-author in over 100 publications including peer-reviewed research articles, invited reviews and book chapters.
Michael A. Gillette, M.D., Ph.D.
Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard
Michael Gillette is a Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, an attending physician in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and an instructor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. As a research scientist he has special expertise in application of biological mass spectrometry to identityand high information content pattern-based biomarker discovery, qualification, and verification. Mike received his B.A. from Carleton College, the M.A. and M.Sc. degrees from New College, Oxford University, and the M.D. and Ph.D. (Neuroscience) degrees from Harvard University. He brings a unique blend of clinical expertise and current practice together with laboratory skills and a sophisticated knowledge of proteomics to his current role as co-leader of the Biomarker Discovery Program in the Broad Proteomics and Biomarker Discovery Platform.
Peter W. Laird, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Peter Laird directs the discovery project for DNA methylation biomarkers. He earned his B.S. and his M.S., Cum Laude, from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam while working in the laboratory of Dr. Piet Borst. He received his postdoctoral training from Dr. Anton Berns at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and from Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. He pioneered the use of mouse models to investigate the causal contribution of DNA methylation to cancer (Laird et al. 1995, Cell 81, 197), and invented two DNA methylation assays, COBRA (Xiong and Laird 1997, Nucleic Acids Res 25, 2532) and MethyLight (Eads et al. 2000, Nucleic Acids Res 28, E32), which has been issued a U.S. patent. Dr. Laird is currently associate professor of surgery and of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. He is Director of the USC Epigenome Center, Director of Basic Research for the Department of Surgery, and Program Leader of the Epigenetics and Regulation Program at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He serves on various editorial and scientific advisory boards and is co-founder of ORCA Biosciences, currently Epigenomics, AG and of TherEpi Corp.
Amanda G. Paulovich, M.D., Ph. D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Amanda Paulovich, a medical oncologist, directs the Early Detection Initiative at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She earned M.D. and Ph.D degrees at the University of Washington. While a graduate student in genetics, she trained in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Dr. Lee Hartwell where she studied checkpoint regulation of cell cycle progression in yeast in response to DNA damaging agents as well as genetic mechanisms used by yeast cells to tolerate irreparable DNA damage. Subsequently, she did a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and postdoctoral training with Dr. Eric Lander at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In September 2004, Dr. Paulovich joined the faculty of the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as Director of the Center's new Early Detection Initiative, and is continuing to pursue her interest in biomarkers of cancer risk and detection, using proteomic technologies such as mass spectrometry. She participates in several large, multi-institutional biomarker discovery initiatives and is a Steering Committee member for the International Cancer Biomarker Consortium (ICBC), a large-scale effort similar to the Human Genome Project aimed at making significant progress in the discovery of biomarkers by facilitating highly coordinated research and leveraging resources and expertise from around the world. She also serves on the advisory Boards of Bio-Rad Laboratories, the Canary Foundation, and the Women's Bioethics Project.
Peggy L. Porter, M.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Peggy Porter, a pathologist, is a member of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. As head of the multi-institutional Breast Cancer Program centered at the Hutchinson Center, Dr. Porter leads a dynamic group of basic scientists, epidemiologists, surgeons, oncologists and pathologists dedicated to reducing the incidence and subsequent mortality of breast cancer. Projects by members of the program range from mapping mutations that contributes to cancer risk to evaluating lifestyle factors and potential interventions. Her lab focuses on identifying and understanding the molecular events associated with initiation and progression of breast cancer, particularly the role of abnormal cell cycle control. In collaboration with epidemiologists and basic science researchers at the Hutchinson Center, researchers in the Porter lab identified the loss of cell cycle inhibitor p27 as an important indicator of poor prognosis in breast cancer. With collaborators in Atlanta she found that specific abnormalities in expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins were more common in breast tumors of black women than of those in white women, which might contribute to the aggressive phenotype seen at a high frequency in black women. Ongoing microarray-based studies will further define the molecular characteristics of breast tumors in black and white women in that cohort. Her lab continues to integrate new technologies and apply them in large-scale studies to identify tumor markers of progression that can be used for detection, prognosis and prediction of response to therapy. She obtained her medical degree in 1987 from the University of New Mexico and completed her residency in Pathology at the University of Washington where she was a recipient of the American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Fellowship. She joined the Hutchinson Center in 1993.
Aysegul A. Sahin, M.D.
University of Texas
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Aysegul Sahin is an internationally recognized breast pathology expert who is a faculty member at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1988. She received her medical doctor degree from University of Ankara in 1980, completed Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency at Oregon Health Science University, and did Surgical and Oncologic Surgical Pathology Fellowships at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Currently, she is the section head of breast pathology and director of Surgical Pathology and Breast Pathology Fellowship Programs. She is also the director of the Breast Tumor Bank. Dr. Sahin is actively involved with clinical and translation research programs related to breast cancer. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts on breast pathology especially on morphologic features of invasive and in-situ carcinomas, and high-risk lesions biomarkers of breast cancer progression, prognostic and predictive marker evaluations in breast cancer. Dr. Sahin has also published multiple book chapters on pathology of breast lesions. She is the primary investigator of pathology core of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center SPORE EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Page 10 of 12 www.eifoundation.org\wcrf grant on breast cancer. Dr. Sahin is also lead pathologist of many research projects. She is an executive committee member of international society of breast pathology and member of national and international pathology societies.
Richard D. Smith, Ph.D.
Battelle/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Dr. Dick Smith's research involves the development and application of advanced analytical methods and instrumentation, with particular emphasis on high-resolution separations and mass spectrometry and their applications in biological and biomedical research. Much of his research over the last 15 years has focused on developing and applying new ultra-sensitive and comprehensive methods for quantitatively probing the entire array of proteins expressed by a cell, tissue or organism, i.e., their "proteomes." Current interests also include greatly increasing the throughput and sensitivity of proteomics and metabolomics measurements to meet systems biology research needs. In addition to being a Battelle Fellow and Chief Scientist at PNNL, Dr. Smith is an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Chemistry at both Washington State University and the University of Utah, and an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Chemistry, University of Idaho. He is also Director of the NIH Research Resource for Integrative Proteomics located at PNNL. Dr. Smith has presented more than 350 invited and plenary lectures at national and international scientific meetings, is the author/co-author of more than 650 publications, holds 30 patents, and has received seven R&D 100 Awards.
Pei Wang, Ph.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Pei Wang completed her undergraduate study at Peking University (Beijing, China), and received her B.S. in Math in July 2000. Dr. Wang continued her graduate study in the department of Statistics, Stanford University, and received her Ph.D. degree in September 2004. Dr. Wang then spent a year working as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Hua Tang at the Fred Huchinson Cancer Research Center. In Nov 2005, Dr. Wang was appointed Assistant Member in the program of Cancer Prevention, Division of Public Health Science, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research. In Jan 2007, Dr. Wang received the Affiliate Assistant Professor appointment from the department of Biostatistics, University of Washington.
Julian D.Watts, Ph.D.
Institute for Systems Biology
Dr. Julian Watts earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in the United Kingdom, before moving to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, to do his post-doctoral studies with Ruedi Aebersold. Dr. Watts next spent several years at the Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington in Seattle, before joining Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), also in Seattle, as a Senior Research Scientist, in September 2000. He is currently part of a substantial proteomics program at the ISB, headed, again, by Ruedi Aebersold. A major focus of this research is the development and implementation of both information and proteomic technologies for the identification of blood-borne markers for early detection of human disease, specifically targeting glycosylated cell surface and tissue derived, as well as secreted, proteins. A major effort at ISB for the application of this technology is currently aimed at early detection of breast cancer, though other disease-related projects are also ongoing, for detection of prostate and bladder cancer, as well as diabetes.
EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Clinical Advisors
Julie R. Gralow, M.D.
University of Washington
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Dr. Julie Gralow is an associate member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and serves as the associate program head for its Breast Cancer Program. She is an associate professor in the oncology division of the University of Washington School of Medicine, and director, Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Washington's Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. From 1998-2002, Dr. Gralow directed the Patient and Family Education and Outreach program at the University of Washington Medical Center and the Women's Cancer Genetics and Risk Reduction Clinic. After receiving her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, Dr. Gralow graduated with a medical degree from the University of Southern California School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncology fellowship at the Hutchinson Center, where she also spent time researching immunity to the HER 2/neu oncogene in patients with breast cancer. An American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) member since 1995, Dr. Gralow was a 1995 recipient of an ASCO Career Development Award. She currently chairs ASCO's Cancer Communications Committee and served as vice-chair for the Public Issues Committee (1999-2002). She participated as a member of the Health Services Committee and the Cancer Education Committee and is a current member of the Aromatase Inhibitors Committee, the Bisphosphonates-Breast Expert Panel, and the Clinical Cancer Advances Committee.
Dr. Gralow is a member of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), and serves as vice-chair for its Breast Cancer Committee and co-chair of the Breast Scientific Leadership Council Steering Committee of the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups. She is also a delegate to the University of Washington Center for Women and Democracy and has advised the group on its missions to Cuba, the Baltics, South Africa, Ukraine, and China. The author of more than 70 scholarly articles and 85 published abstracts, Dr. Gralow is a member of the editorial boards of several national publications. Dr. Gralow has been honored many times for service to her community and her dedication to helping patients overcome breast cancer. In 2005, she was named the C.J. Taylor Outstanding Community Volunteer by the Puget Sound affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In the same year, the Breast Care Site recognized her efforts in fighting breast cancer with its "Above and Beyond" award. In 2006, she received the Helen H. Jackson "Women of Valor" award for her activism in medicine and health care in Washington State.
Eric P. Winer, M.D.
Breast Oncology Center
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Eric P. Winer is a medical oncologist who has specialized in the area of breast cancer for over 15 years. He graduated from Yale College in 1978, with a degree in History and Russian/East European Studies. He subsequently obtained his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine in 1983, followed by training in internal medicine at Yale. He moved to Duke University Medical Center in 1987 and completed a fellowship in medical oncology in 1989. He subsequently remained on the Duke faculty until 1997, where he specialized in breast cancer and became the Co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Breast Program.
In 1997, Dr. Winer moved to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston where he assumed the role of Director of the Breast Oncology Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical. He oversees the clinical and clinical research components of the breast cancer program at Dana-Farber. In 2002, Dr. Winer became Chief of Adult Ambulatory Services at Dana-Farber. In addition to his role at Dana-Farber, Dr. Winer is the co-chair of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) breast committee and is the chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Health Services Committee. Dr. Winer divides his time between patient care, clinical research, and administration. He is committed to caring for patients today and finding better treatments for patients in the future. Dr. Winer is widely published. His own research interests focus on the development of new treatments, reducing toxicity of existing treatments, and improving quality of life for breast cancer survivors.
EIF's Biomarker Discovery Project Regional Beneficiaries
Helena R. Chang, M.D., Ph.D.
UCLA School of Medicine
Revlon/UCLA Breast Cancer Center
Dr. Helena R. Chang, director of the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center and professor of surgery, is a world-renowned surgical oncologist, with a dedicated interest in breast cancer. She has held the Revlon Chair at UCLA since 1997 and has repeatedly been named as one of America's Top Doctors in her field. Dr. Chang received her Ph.D. in cancer immunology and M.D. from Temple University, and completed her general surgery training at Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia and a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She also completed advanced research fellowship training in cell cycle regulation in cancer at Temple University.
As director of the Gonda/UCLA Breast Cancer Research Laboratory and the Clinical Trials Unit for Breast Cancer, Dr. Chang's research focuses on developing biomarker-based laboratory tests for breast cancer detection, tailored-treatment and cancer vaccine development. Her work has earned her numerous awards and honors.
Parkash S. Gill, M.D.
University of Southern California
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Parkash Gill is a Professor of Medicine (Hematology, Oncology and Pathology) at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine where he holds an endowed chair in Cancer Therapeutics. He is an author of nearly 200 research publications in oncology. Dr. Gill is an internationally recognized authority in cancer and vascular biology, identification and development of therapeutics with application in cancer. He has played a pivotal role in the development of three marketed drugs including Taxol® Paxene® and DaunoXome® and served on the FDA Advisory Committees. Dr. Gill's research work relates to the understanding of blood vessel formation in health, wound healing and tumor growth. Furthermore, he studies how certain proteins that are present on the surface of tumor cell interact with adjacent blood vessels, resulting in growth advantage to both tumor cells and blood supply. His research work extends from identification of the surface proteins on both tumor cells and blood vessels, to understanding their function, to then develop novel therapies.
Dr. Gill's laboratory has a major focus on cancer in women. His laboratory has defined two proteins (EphB and EphrinB) in breast cancer and ovarian cancer that are highly expressed on the surface of tumor cell and not normal organ. These proteins are predictive of poor survival. These proteins provide advantage to tumor cells for survival such that blocking their function leads to tumor cell death. Lastly these proteins signal to adjacent blood vessels that promote blood vessel growth and thus increased nutrients to support tumor growth, and spread of tumor cells to distant locations. Ongoing work is intended to elucidate the pathways how such proteins signal to protect tumor cells from cell death.
This work has the potential to define new pathways, guide optimal combination with other therapies for improving disease control. Antibodies to EphB and EphrinB will enter human testing with great promise in breast and ovarian cancer. EIF (Entertainment Industry Foundation) has provided the critical support to move this work forward. This work is now ready to move to the next level of investigating its potential for targeted therapy for woman's cancers, in addition to diagnostic and prognostic applications.
Through the Entertainment Industry Foundatioin's National Women's Cancer Research Alliance, our goal is to accelerate promising treatment research to treat cancer patients more safely and increase patient access to some of the most significant clinical trials in the nation. Co-founded with Lilly Tartikoff, EIF grants have helped accelerate research that contributed to the development of the breakthrough treatment Herceptin®, the first successful drug that seeks out a particular gene found in one of three cases of the most aggressive form of breast cancer.
Dennis J. Slamon, M.D., Ph.D.
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
In addition to his role as director of Clinical/Translational Research, Dr. Dennis J. Slamon serves as director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Executive Vice-Chair for Research for UCLA's Department of Medicine. Dr. Slamon also serves as Director of the Medical Advisory Board for the Entertainment Industry Foundation's National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (EIF's NCCRA). For 12 years, Dr. Slamon and his colleagues conducted the laboratory and clinical research that led to the development of the new breast cancer drug Herceptin, which targets a specific genetic alteration found in about 30 percent of breast cancer patients. In June 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Slamon to the three-member President's Cancer Panel. He has won nearly a dozen national research awards honoring his scientific endeavors. In 2000, he was awarded the Translational Medicine Award by the USCD-Salk Institute as well as the Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Millennium Award for significant achievement and leadership in breast cancer research. In 2001, he was awarded the Wadsworth Center's Brown-Hazen Award for Excellence in the Basic Sciences, and in 2002, he received the Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. In 2003, he received the Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research, an international award given by the Kirk A. and Dorothy P. Landon Foundation and the American Association for Cancer Research. In 2004, the American Cancer Society presented Dr. Slamon with the Medal of Honor, the top award bestowed by the organization. A 1975 honors graduate of the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Slamon earned his Ph.D. in cell biology that same year. He completed his internship and residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics, becoming Chief Resident in 1978. One year later, he became a fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UCLA.
Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D.
Vanderbilt-Ingram Breast Cancer Program
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Carlos L. Arteaga obtained his M.D. degree with honors in 1980 at the University of Guayaquil in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He trained in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and The University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Texas. In 1988, he joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University where he is now Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, and member of the Division of Hematology-Oncology. In addition, Dr. Arteaga is Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program and Breast Cancer SPORE of the NCI-designated Vanderbilt-Ingram Comprehensive Cancer Center. His funded research focuses on the role of growth factor receptors and oncogenes in the progression of breast tumor cells as well as the development of molecular therapeutics in breast cancer. Dr. Arteaga is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and in Medical Oncology and has over 120 peer-reviewed publications relevant to his research in the molecular and cell biology of mammary neoplasia.
In 1998, Dr. Arteaga was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and serves as a member of the NIH Parent Committee for Review of Cancer Centers (2004-2008), the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute (1999-2004), the Breast Cancer Core Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), and the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR; 2004-2007). He co-chairs the Developmental Therapeutics Committee of ECOG and chairs the Special Conferences Committee of the AACR (2002-2005). Dr. Arteaga is the recipient of the 2003 AACR Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award for innovative work leading to progress in clinical breast cancer. He chaired the 2001 AACR/NCI/EORTC Meeting in Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics and the AACR Special Conference Advances in Breast Cancer Research in 2003. He is Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology & Neoplasia, Clinical Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Proteomics, and Cancer Biology & Therapy.
Joan S. Brugge, Ph.D.
Department of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Joan S. Brugge is currently the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. She joined the faculty of the Harvard Medical School as a Professor in July 1997. A graduate of Northwestern University, Dr. Brugge did her graduate work at the Baylor College of Medicine, completing her Ph.D. in 1975. She then performed her postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado with Dr. Raymond Erikson. Dr. Brugge has held full professorships at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she was also named as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. From 1992-1997, Dr. Brugge was Scientific Director of the biotechnology company ARIAD. Dr. Brugge has received several awards recognizing her scientific accomplishments including an NIH Merit Award, an American Cancer Society Research Professorship and the Senior Career Recognition Award from the American Society of Cell Biology. In addition, she has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
Nancy E. Davidson, M.D.
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Dr. Nancy E. Davidson, a medical oncologist, is the Breast Cancer Research Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, she has integrated basic scientific investigation of the molecular and cellular biology of breast cancer with a nationally renowned clinical and translational program focused on new therapeutic approaches. Her most recent lab work examines the role of epigenetic regulation of the estrogen receptor gene in breast cancer. She has guided important national trials of new therapies for women with breast cancer including the use of chemoendocrine therapy for women with premenopausal breast cancer.
Funmi I. Olopade, M.D., FACP.
Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Chicago
Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, Dr. Funmi I. Olopade epitomizes the "bench to bedside" philosophy in her application of scientific discoveries to clinical medicine and has seamlessly parlayed her findings into clinical applications. As a Hematologist/Oncologist, Dr. Olopade specializes in cancer risk assessment, prevention, early detection and treatment of aggressive breast cancer that disproportionately affects young women. A member of many professional societies including the Association of American Physicians, Dr. Olopade has national and international recognition as a physician scientist. A speaker in much demand, she effectively disseminates the benefits of her work, inspires students and colleagues, and is a role model for women scientists worldwide. Dr. Olopade received her medical degree with distinction from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. She came to the United States as a resident in internal medicine at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, where she was named Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Olopade completed her postdoctoral fellowship training in the joint section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago and was appointed to the faculty in 1991. Dr. Olopade is now the Director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics in the Department of Medicine and holds many other faculty, hospital, and administrative posts.
Dr. Olopade is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar award, the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award and a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship "genius" grant.
C. Kent Osborne, M.D.
Breast Center Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. C. Kent Osborne was born in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his A.B. and M.D. degrees from the University of Missouri, both with honors. He completed his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1974, and then spent three years as a clinical associate at the Medicine Branch, Breast Cancer Section of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1977, Dr. Osborne took his first faculty position at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he rose to the rank of Professor and became Director of the Division of Medical Oncology in 1992. In 1999, he and his team moved to the Baylor College of Medicine to develop a new multidisciplinary Breast Center.
Presently, Dr. Osborne is Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Breast Center at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center that is under development at the college. He currently holds the Tina and Dudley Sharp Chair in Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Osborne is a physician as well as a research investigator. He has focused on breast cancer his entire career. His research interests include understanding the biology of breast cancer and then developing new treatment approaches for the disease. He has published extensively on the mechanisms by which hormonal therapies such as Tamoxifen inhibit breast cancer growth and how breast cancers become resistant to these therapies. Dr. Osborne has also studied the role of various growth factors in breast cancer development and progression, and more recently how these other growth factors can interact with estrogen to stimulate tumor growth. For more than a decade, Dr. Osborne was Chairman of the Breast Cancer Committee for the Southwest Oncology Group, where he directed numerous nationwide clinical trials investigating new treatment strategies for breast cancer patients. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Baylor Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant, one of only nine such grants nationwide and the only one in Texas. He also directs a grant from the National Cancer Institute, the goal of which is to identify the gene pathways important in breast cancer growth and then to block these pathways for therapeutic purposes.
Among Dr. Osborne's previous awards are the Komen Foundation Award and the Brinker International Award for Breast Cancer Research. He received the European Institute of Oncology Annual Breast Cancer Award for 2004 and the Jacqueline Seroussi Award in Israel in 2005.
Frances M. Visco, Esq.
President
National Breast Cancer Coalition
Ms. Frances M. Visco, Esq., is the first president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Fund (NBCC/F), and is a member of its Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Ms. Visco was an honors graduate at St. Joseph's University and a graduate of Villanova University's School of Law, where she was an editor of the Law Review and chair of the Women's Law Caucus. Before leaving to focus on the work of NBCCF, she was a partner in a Philadelphia law firm. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Ms. Visco as one of three members of the President's Cancer Panel. In addition, she was the first consumer to chair the Integration Panel of the Department of Defense's Peer-Review Breast Cancer Research Program. She co-chaired the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer and served on the National Cancer Policy Board. Ms. Visco has been a member of the Institute of Medicine panels and has served on other policy committees, including the steering committees of the Breast Cancer International Research Group and the Experts Advisory Panel for the Universal Health Insurance Program at the New America Foundation.
In addition, Ms. Visco has been at the forefront of women's health advocacy issues, testifying before congressional committees, lecturing on the politics of breast cancer throughout the United States and internationally, and discussing women's health on national television.
Ms. Visco is a 19-year breast cancer survivor. She resides in Philadelphia with her husband and 20-year-old son.
Beth Y. Karlan, M.D.
Board of Governors' Endowed Chair in Gynecologic Oncology and Director
Cedars-Sinai WCRI at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute (Lead Institution)
Expertise: Ovarian Cancer Early Detection and Biomarker Discovery
Early detection is a primary objective of ovarian cancer research because of its promise for improved survival and quality of life. The overall five year survival for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer is 50%, but when the cancer is detected early, while it is still confined to the ovaries, prolonged survival and even cure is possible for over 95% of these women. Unfortunately, at the current time the majority of cases are diagnosed at a late stage after the tumor has spread widely, in large part, due to a lack of effective screening and early detection techniques. Ovarian cancer mortality could be reduced dramatically, even without advances in therapy, if a majority of the women affected with ovarian cancer could be diagnosed at an early stage. We have had a long standing interest in discovering effective means of early detection since our initiation of the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Program in 1991. In addition to our ongoing studies of women at high risk for ovarian cancer due to their inherited genetic predisposition to the disease, we are working to discover serum biomarkers that can be used as a screening test for all women.
The focus of these efforts will be on the identification of genomic and proteomic profiles that comprise ovarian cancer-specific signatures. Profiles will be validated using our robust human tissue resources and matching serial serum samples in order to optimize and refine the ability of the biomarkers to predict disease status. It is generally agreed that a panel of tumor markers will be required to achieve adequate sensitivity and specificity for early stage disease. After more than 15 years of banking gynecologic tissue specimens, the Ovarian Tissue and Clinical Database Core Facility is a cornerstone of the WCRI research program. It provides a rich resource of clinical specimens from patients with ovarian carcinoma, from women at high risk of ovarian cancer due to an inherited predisposition, and from women with normal ovaries that have been removed for benign indications. Additionally, the core establishes, characterizes and maintains
in vitro and
in vivo models (primary monolayer cell cultures and murine xenografts, respectively) to facilitate research aimed at understanding genetic mechanisms involved in ovarian carcinogenesis and to support our preclinical investigations of molecular-targeted therapies. An additional strength of our core facility is its state-of-the-art relational database system that links all patient demographic, epidemiologic, and medical information with each banked specimen. This "linkage" facilitates translational research by allowing us to correlate laboratory research discoveries, clinical observations, and patient characteristics.
WCRI has begun to molecularly profile ovarian cancer's to identify novel molecular biomarkers for early detection and monitoring. Our preliminary data demonstrate that gene expression profiling can differentiate between the various ovarian cancer histologic subtypes. In addition, gene silencing by epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, is now recognized as another critical trigger for neoplastic development and progression. Our preliminary data demonstrate that DNA methylation patterns in ovarian cancers characterize some highly aggressive tumors that do not respond to conventional therapies. Soluble tumor DNA shed into the surrounding fluid and/or serum when cancer cells die represents a stable analyze that can be amplified and then utilized for biomarker determination. Our goal will be to define the genetic and epigenetic fingerprints of ovarian cancer and to determine the molecular signatures most useful for diagnosis, early detection, and therapy design.
David M. Gershenson, M.D.
Chairman Gynecologic Oncology Department
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Expertise: Tumor Angiogenesis and Molecular Targeting Strategies in Ovarian Cancer
Despite advances in surgery and chemotherapy, ovarian cancer remains the most common cause of mortality from a gynecologic malignancy. The majority of ovarian cancer patients respond to initial surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy, but of these about 70% will recur and succumb to disease. The poor outcome of ovarian cancer patients is due to widespread metastases and development of resistance to chemotherapy. Due to the poor survival of women with ovarian cancer, understanding the mechanisms contributing to ovarian cancer development and progression as well as novel therapeutic approaches are urgently needed.
Targeting the tumor vasculature (blood supply) is a particularly attractive therapeutic strategy because endothelial cells are thought to be inherently more genetically stable than tumor cells. One such strategy has included the use of a soluble VEGF decoy receptor, the VEGF Trap, comprised of fragments of VEGF receptor (VEGFR)-1 (flt1) and VEGFR2 (flk1, KDR). Our preclinical studies indicate that VEGF-Trap in combination with taxane chemotherapy is highly efficacious. Based on these findings we are initiating a clinical trial for treatment of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer using VEGF-Trap and docetaxel.
While VEGF-targeted strategies have shown promise in ovarian and other cancers, it is likely that additional targets will be required to further improve the therapeutic efficacy of anti-angiogenic approaches. To identify novel molecular targets in the ovarian cancer vasculature, we have performed recent studies to identify differentially overexpressed genes in the tumor endothelial cells as compared to normal ovarian endothelial cells. Using microarray profiling, we have identified a list of genes that are selectively overexpressed in the ovarian cancer vasculature. We are testing the functional significance of these targets using both
in vitro and
in vivo experimental models. Moreover, we have recently developed a highly efficient method of delivering short interfering RNA (siRNA)
in vivo using neutral nanoparticles for therapeutic applications. This strategy gives us opportunities to block abnormally expressed genes that are not "druggable" with other approaches. In proof-of-concept studies, we have demonstrated that targeting the EphA2 tyrosine kinase with siRNA incorporated in nanoparticles was highly efficacious in pre-clinical models. Based on discussions with the FDA, we are performing formal toxicology studies prior to bringing this approach to clinical trials. We are developing siRNA-based anti-angiogenic approaches for targeting the differentially expressed genes in the tumor vasculature. We are also developing additional nanoparticles to deliver siRNA selectively to cell types of interest (for example, tumor associated endothelial cells or tumor cells).
In summary, we have developed highly innovative strategies that hold promise for providing new targeted therapies for ovarian cancer patients. Our work is supported by extensive preliminary data and is being carried out by a highly qualified, multi-disciplinary research team.
Richard R. Barakat, M.D.
Chief, Gynecology Service Division of Gynecologic Oncology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Expertise: Molecular Profiling of Ovarian Cancers to Predict Prognosis
The Gynecology Research Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is one of the world's leading research facilities in the study of ovarian cancer. One of the main long-term aims of the Gynecology Research Laboratory at MSKCC is to develop new models to predict outcome in advanced ovarian cancer. Though treatments are improving for patients with advanced ovarian cancer, those who succumb to disease ultimately develop platinum-resistant tumors. We are developing a new class of predictive models using microRNAs, which are recently discovered short RNAs that regulate the expression of many genes in our body. They are thought to be master regulators that control more function than classical messenger RNA. Approximately 20% of women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer will have tumors that are resistant to platinum chemotherapy, the mainstay of treatment for this malignancy. Currently we are unable to predict which patients are destined to have platinum resistant tumors. The broad goal of our work is to identify a microRNA gene expression profile that predicts which patients are more likely to recur as well as further expand our knowledge of the molecular basis of ovarian cancer. This will help us to tailor post-surgical treatments more effectively, such that we can offer additional therapy to those patients who are most likely to benefit. This project should help to bring us one step closer to the promise of personalized cancer care. Ovarian cancer is expected to strike 22,430 women in 2007 and lead to death in over 50% of those diagnosed.
Robert E. Bristow, M.D.
Director, The Kelly Gynecologic and Oncology Service
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Expertise: Ovarian Cancer Surgical Outcomes Analysis
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer-related morbidity and mortality in the United States and many other developed countries worldwide. Improvements in clinical outcomes during the past 30 years have been incremental and have been the result of many different avenues of research including advances in surgical techniques, chemotherapeutic agents and delivery modalities, and supportive care. During this time period, standards of care for women with ovarian cancer have been firmly established. However, our research, as well as that of other investigators, indicates that a majority of women in the United States do not receive state-of-the-art care. The reasons for this are poorly understood. Consequently, outcomes analysis to elevate the standard of care for women with or at risk for ovarian cancer is an emerging and critically important field of investigation. A vital component of outcomes analysis for ovarian cancer is the identification of barriers to universal access to quality care. We have previously shown that these include patient demographic characteristics, qualifications (of lack thereof) of hospitals and individual providers, economic considerations, and the influence of third party payers to name just a few. Our current ovarian cancer research program is also focused on developing risk-adjusted measures of patient outcomes and healthcare provider performance and quantifying the short- and long-term impact of treatment on quality-adjusted patient survival. In addition to spotlighting the barriers to quality care, an equally important challenge is the development of model healthcare delivery platforms for women with ovarian cancer that are able to provide broadly accessible cutting-edge treatment at an economically affordable cost. Consequently, our multidisciplinary research team, comprised of experts in epidemiology, public health, health policy and management, and basic science research, is also focused on the cost-effectiveness and pharmaco-economic aspects of ovarian cancer outcomes analysis as well as the development of novel therapeutic agents.
