Every spring and fall we host a full day symposium with a particular focus and often in collaboration with another research center, department, or institute here at Duke. Our spring symposium is this Friday in the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Building (click for DukeMaps location). This symposium is in partnership with the Duke Cancer Institute and focuses on the topic of the Cancer Exposome. The full schedule is below.
The Cancer Exposome: Innovation at the Intersection of Environmental Exposure & Disease Pathways
Friday, April 3, 2015
Abstract: The concept the Human Exposome can be thought of as an attempt to integrate “big data” from the most sophisticated technologies in exposure assessment together with multiple molecular-omics, to elucidate “meaningful” exposures that impact cellular signaling pathways leading to disease. The Exposome is more than just the complex mixture of chemicals and other environmental factors to which we are exposed to over our lifetime. It also includes the mechanisms by which that mixture disrupts our physiology as a disease driver. This symposium brings together toxicologists, -omics experts, and cancer researchers who will present research concerning how the environmental exposures we encounter throughout life interact with the molecular and physiological pathways known to be carcinogenic. The Exposome approach also holds potential to serve as a novel lens, indeed an organizing principle, by which we classify complex toxicants as a function of molecular disease mechanisms. It may also elucidate mechanisms of individual heterogeneity in vulnerability and resistance and guide approaches prevention, therapy and policy.
AGENDA
8:00-8:45: Breakfast and Registration
8:45-9:00: Welcome and Introduction, Steven Patierno, Ph.D., Duke University
9:00-10:00: Keynote: Stephen Rappaport, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, The exposome and EWAS: Finding Causes of Cancer
10:00-11:00: Heather Stapleton, Ph.D. and Julie Sosa, M.D., Duke University, Exploring links between flame retardant exposures and risks for thyroid cancer
11:00-11:15: Break
11:15-12:15: Patricia Matthews-Juarez, Ph.D. and Paul Juarez, Ph.D., University of Tennessee Health Science Center, The Public Health Exposome: A systems approach towards understanding the spatial/temporal dynamics of environmental exposures, adverse health outcomes, and cancer health disparities
12:15-1:15: Lunch
1:15-2:15: Gary Miller, Ph.D., Emory University, Studying complex exposures in complex diseases: The Exposome at Emory
2:15-3:15: Joel Meyer, Ph.D. and Matthew Hirschey, Ph.D., Duke University, Can environmental exposures that target mitochondria promote cancer?
3:15-4:00: David Balshaw, Ph.D., National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, CHEARing for the Exposome at NIEHS
4:00-4:30: Steven Patierno, Ph.D., Summary and Discussion
