Cancer – Evolution within Us

讲座题目：Cancer – Evolution within Us

讲座人：James DeGregori 教授

讲座时间：2017年11月8日（星期三）10:00

地点：长安校区 格物楼3201会议室

讲座内容简介：

Current models of carcinogenesis are dominated by the assumption that oncogenic mutations have defined advantageous fitness effects on recipient stem and progenitor cells, promoting and rate-limiting somatic evolution. However, this assumption is markedly discrepant with evolutionary theory, whereby fitness is a dynamic property of a phenotype imposed upon and widely modulated by environment. We have used been using mouse models of cancer initiation, mathematical models of clonal evolution, and analyses of mutational processes in humans to better understand the evolutionary forces that control somatic cell evolution and thus cancer risk. These studies support a model whereby the primary causes of cancer, such as old age and cigarette smoking, link to increased risk for cancer through their impacts on tissue microenvironments. In particular, our studies support a key role for age or insult mediated increases in inflammation in altering selection for cancer-associated mutations. These studies indicate that strategies to prevent or treat cancers will need to incorporate interventions that alter tissue microenvironments. While we largely cannot prevent mutation accumulation through our lives, we do have the ability to manipulate tissue microenvironments so as to change the evolutionary trajectories of oncogenically-mutated cells.

讲座人简介：

James V. DeGregori博士，Courtenay C. and Lucy Patten肺癌研究讲席教授。现任科罗拉多老员工物化学及分子遗传学系教授，科罗拉多大学癌症中心副主任。1993年于麻省理工学院获得博士学位，1993- 1997年在杜克大学美国科学院院士Joseph Nevins 实验室从事博士后研究。1997年获得霍华德休斯研究奖并应聘于科罗拉多大学。DeGregori 教授研究工作的重点是癌细胞进化及应变肿瘤发生模型，特别是机体衰老及其它创伤对癌变的诱发作用。他的实验室在经典进化论的原则的基础上提出该肿瘤发生模型，并且从理论、实验及计算生物学角度完成了大量论证工作。他的实验室也结合功能基因组和分子生物学技术来发现药物治疗作用下骨髓癌和肺癌细胞生存信号传递及代谢途径。DeGregori教授主持的研究工作在Cancer Cell，Immunity等一流科研刊物发表了60 余篇论文，其工作受到科学和医药界研究同行的广泛关注并多次获奖。