Your body’s shifting cancer blueprint and the treatments that target it

SAN ANTONIO (January 9, 2012) – Several of the UT Health Science Center’s top genetic researchers will present the latest in our understanding of the role at the genetic level, at the free January 12 public lecture at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center.

Researchers from throughout the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center will give short summaries of different aspects of genetics research, including the importance of family history in cancer risk, how cell metabolism is altered in cancer, and epigenetics: how your genes can be switched on and off by environmental factors — not just in your body, but in your parents’ bodies before you were born. If genetics is the hardware that governs your genome, epigenetics is the software.

The five brief presentations and a question-and-answer session will run from 6 – 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center, 7979 Wurzbach, San Antonio, Texas, on the 4th floor of the Grossman Building.

Speakers include:

  • Gail Tomlinson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and interim director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (GCCRI)
    Family History: How your genes influence your risk of cancer
  • Patricia Dahia, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of hematology and medical oncology
    Discovering genetic causes of cancer
  • Tim Huang, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of molecular biology and CTRC deputy director
    Why genes don’t tell us everything: how epigenetics affects risk
  • Sunil Sudarshan, M.D., assistant professor of urology
    The metabolism of cancer
  • Robin Leach, Ph.D., professor in the department of cellular and structural biology
    The impact of genes on cancer progression

For more information on the lecture, call 210-450-1152.

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The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the elite academic cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Cancer Center, and is one of only four in Texas. A leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer, the CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) conducts one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug programs in the world, and participates in development of cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. For more information, visit www.ctrc.net.



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