We’re bringing together leaders in cancer research.
Marco Gallo, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Division of Hematology-Oncology
Member, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Texas Children’s Hospital
“Epigenetically-defined niches in glioblastoma”
Distinguished Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases Seminar Series
Deepak Srivastava, MD
President
Director, Roddenberry Stem Cell Center
Gladstone Institutes
Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry & Biophysics
UCSF Medical Center
UC San Francisco
Seminar Abstract: Heart disease remains a leading cause of death in adults and children. By leveraging the signaling, transcriptional, and translational networks that guide cardiac development, we have reprogrammed disease-specific human cells into iPS cells to model genetically defined heart disease and uncover mechanisms that drive disease progression. We have also used key cardiac developmental factors to directly reprogram resident cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells, revealing the epigenetic mechanisms underlying this cell-fate switch. These insights into cardiac differentiation provide strategies for generating cardiac cell types for disease modeling and regenerative approaches and may inform new treatments for human heart disease.
Distinguished Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases Seminar Series
Hesham A. Sadek, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine,
Chief, Division of Cardiology
Director, Sarver Heart Center
University of Arizona
The Women in Science Lecture Series highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.
Join us for the launch of the second year of our Women in Science Lecture Series! Hear from three Sanford Burnham Prebys investigators whose innovative cancer research is funded by Curebound grants, plus special guest Robin Toft, CEO of Curebound, who will share insights from her leadership journey. Together they’ll discuss advancing discovery, fostering leadership, and strengthening pathways for women in biomedical research. This free event is open to anyone passionate about science, innovation, and the future of cancer research. Networking lunch to follow.
Director, High Content Imaging Platforms
Center for Therapeutics Discovery
Panel Discussion moderated by:
Postdoctoral Scholar
Adams Lab
Cancer Genome & Epigenetics Program
NCI-Designated Cancer Center
Panel Discussion moderated by:
The Women in Science Lecture Series, hosted by Sanford Burnham Prebys, highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.
Featuring Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA, and Kelly Kersten, PhD.
Featuring Cheryl Anderson, PhD, MPH, and Angela Liou, MD.
Featuring Susan Tousi, MBA, and Brooke Emerling, PhD.
We’re bringing together leaders in cancer research.
Rugang Zhang, PhD
John M. O’Quinn Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
Associate Director for Discovery Science
Department Chair & Professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics
Faculty, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
“Exploiting Epigenetic Vulnerabilities to Enable Senescence-based Therapeutic Strategies in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer”
The past decade has brought unprecedented progress in understanding the genetics of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), but cures remain elusive due to the lack of insights into mechanisms that can be leveraged to develop new therapies. EOC is genetically heterogeneous and, therefore, it is imperative that therapeutic strategies become personalized by targeting distinct molecular subsets of EOC. Despite the importance of epigenetic regulators in EOC is increasingly recognized, the mechanism of action for these epigenetic regulators and the associated vulnerabilities exposed by their dysregulations have remained elusive for most of them. In this talk, we will present our recent work elucidating how specific epigenetic mechanisms can be exploited to induce therapy-driven senescence. We will further discuss how senescent tumor states can be exploited through rational combination strategies, including immunotherapy. Together, these integrated approaches offer new opportunities to address unmet clinical needs in genetically defined subsets of EOC.
Distinguished Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases Seminar Series
Vineet Augustine, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
UC San Diego
Seminar Abstract: Dr. Vineet Augustine will present recent discoveries uncovering neural circuits that connect the heart, brain, and immune system in cardiovascular disease. The talk will highlight the first genetically defined model of neurocardiogenic syncope and the neural basis of the Bezold–Jarisch reflex (BJR), revealing how specialized cardiac vagal sensory neurons can trigger rapid cardiovascular collapse and transient loss of consciousness. In addition, the presentation will discuss emerging work demonstrating a heart–brain–immune circuit underlying myocardial infarction, reframing heart attack as not only a cardiac event but also a neuroimmune disorder. Together, these studies establish the heart as a sensory organ that actively communicates with the brain to shape physiology, inflammation, and behavior.
Distinguished Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases Seminar Series
Malene Hansen, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer and Professor, Buck Institute for Research on Aging
The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Seminar Abstract: The cytosolic recycling process of autophagy plays an important role in many age-related diseases and has been directly linked to aging, including in the nematode C. elegans where autophagy appears beneficially induced in many conserved longevity models. As a critical process to ensure cellular homeostasis, autophagy is regulated at multiple levels, yet it remains a challenge in the field to understand how the regulation of autophagy is integrated at the cellular and molecular level to ensure health- and lifespan benefits. I will here discuss our progress on understanding the different molecular mechanisms employed by cells and organisms to regulate autophagy genes in response to stressors such as aging and disease.
Distinguished Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases Seminar Series
Fabio Rossi, MD
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics
Director, Biomedical Research Centre
The University of British Columbia
Seminar Abstract: Chronic or excessive damage leads to a failure of regenerate. Lost tissue is replaced by fibrotic scars that interfere with function and subsequent therapeutic attempts. The same stromal progenitors both support regeneration and give rise to fibrosis. Dr. Rossi will present on topics ranging from the basic mechanisms controlling the function of skeletal and cardiac muscle fibro-adipogenic progenitors to translational strategies aimed at reducing fibrosis in muscular dystrophy and following myocardial infarction.
We’re bringing together leaders in cancer research.
Alexander Muir, PhD
Assistant Professor
Ben May Department of Cancer Research
Committee on Cancer Biology
Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition
University of Chicago
“Hangry cancer cells: metabolic stress and tumor biology”
A hallmark of tumors is aberrant angiogenic signaling and dysfunctional vasculature. This results in poor perfusion in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Limited perfusion causes hypoxia and metabolic stress in the TME. Despite the longstanding understanding that tumors are metabolically stressed, we have limited understanding of how this contributes to cancer pathogenesis. I will discuss new tools that expand our understanding of how metabolic stress regulates tumor biology, which led to the findings that metabolic stress limits the efficacy of targeted, immuno- and chemotherapeutics, leading to the current view that metabolic stress is a barrier to successful treatment of cancer. However, while metabolic stress limits the efficacy of standard therapies, it creates novel therapeutic targets, as cellular processes which are non-essential in well-perfused healthy tissues become essential for metabolically stressed tumors. I will discuss work identifying these stress-contingent essential processes and argue these processes represent an entire new class of therapeutic targets, TME-synthetic lethal targets, that leverage the unique TME, rather than being limited by it.
The Women in Science Lecture Series highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.
Join us for our next event, featuring Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA, Professor, President and Chief Executive Officer of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Dr. Ollmann Saphire will share the defining moments of her journey, the risk and lessons that shaped her path, and her vision for advancing not only the highest caliber of science, but also the people and cultures that make transformative discovery possible. She will then be joined by Kelly Kersten, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at the NCI-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Together, these leaders will spark a conversation about science without boundaries, highlighting how linking disciplines perspectives advances discovery and strengthen the scientific communities that drive it.
Fireside Chat moderated by:
About Dr. Ollmann Saphire:
Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire has builder her career at the power of intersections – where disciplines meet, where discovery meets advocacy, and where science meets the systems that sustain it. Refusing to accept silos or competition as barriers to progress, she had founded and led NIH- and Gates-funded global consortia that united former rivals around a shared mission: to dismantle technical roadblocks and accelerate breakthroughs for the benefit of all.
Beyond her scientific achievements, Dr. Saphire has championed a bold idea – that world-class science depends on world-class scientific communities. She has devoted her leadership and scholarship to understanding how to build, nurture, and propel high performance workplaces designed by scientists, for scientists.
The Women in Science Lecture Series, hosted by Sanford Burnham Prebys, highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.
Featuring Cheryl Anderson, PhD, MPH, and Angela Liou, MD.
Featuring Susan Tousi, MBA, and Brooke Emerling, PhD.
