Seminars
Cancer Center Support Grant and Molecular & Cellular Oncology Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series
The Cancer Biology and Metastasis Program of Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) and Molecular and Cellular Oncology (MCO) Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series brings scientists together to share their top notch research with colleagues in the institution. This seminar has been established for more than 20 years and is open to our faculty and trainees. Currently, the seminar is held on Wednesdays from 11am to noon CST via Zoom. The Zoom link and title will be updated in advance of each talk.
Organizers:
Dr. Dihua Yu, Professor and Chair ad interim, Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Dr. Haoqiang Ying, Associate Professor, Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Seminar Coordinators:
Chalmas Leonard Jr., Sr. Administrative Assistant, Molecular & Cellular Oncology, Email: Ckleonard@mdanderson.org
Deborah H. Henson, Sr. Administrative Assistant, Molecular & Cellular Oncology, Email: DHHenson@mdanderson.org
Upcoming Speakers
FY24
December 13, 2023, 11 a.m.
Zoom Link: https://mdacc.zoom.us/j/89828163717?pwd=KzZ5TjhTZ0l0aG9YQVBibEF5c08vdz09
Response and Resistance to KRAS Inhibition in Pancreatic Cancer
Andrew Aguirre, M.D., Ph.D.
Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Hosts: Drs. Tainer, Haoqiang Ying, Dihua Yu
Past Speakers
FY2024
December 6, 2023, 11 A.M.
Targeting the intersection of DNA Damage Response and Androgen Signaling in Prostate Cancer
Patrick G. Pilié, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Genitourinary Medical Oncology
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Drs. John Tainer, Haoqiang Ying, Dihua Yu
November 29, 2023, 11 A.M.
INF Signaling in the Interplay Between T Cells and Tumor Cells
Weiping Zou, M.D., Ph.D.
Charles B. de Nancrede Professor
Professor of Pathology, Immunology, Biology, and Surgery
Medical School University of Michigan
Host: Drs. Honami Naora, Haoqiang Ying, Dihua Yu
November 15, 2023, 11 A.M.
Transcription Factor Interactions Revealed by Genetic Screens
Christopher Vakoc, M.D., Ph.D.
Alan and Edith Seligson Professor of Cancer Research
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
Hosts: Drs. Min Gyu Lee, Haoqiang Ying, Dihua Yu
October 25, 2023, 11 A.M.
Epigenetic Approaches to Gynecological Cancers
Rugang Zhang , Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Experimental Therapeutics
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
October 11, 2023, 11 A.M.
Uncovering the Immunological Drivers of Protective Immunity following PD-1 Immunotherapy in Cancer
Kristen Pauken, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Immunology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
October 4, 2023, 11 A.M.
Strategies to Challenge Brain Metastasis Lethality in Mice and Human
Manuel Valiente, DVM, PhD
Group LeaderBrain Metastasis Group
Molecular Oncology Programmee, CNIO
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
September 18, 2023, 10 A.M. (CST)
Advancing Asian Genomics-Molecular Predictors of Disease in Individuals and Populations
Patrick Tan, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Dean
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Hosts: Drs. Yuan-Hung Lo, Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
FY2023
June 7, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Mitochondrial Regulation of Kidney Diseases
Farhad R. Danesh, M.D.
Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Division of Internal Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
May 24, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Origins and Effects of Stromal Cells in Aging and Cancer
Mikhail Kolonin, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases
Harry E Bovay, Jr. Distinguished University Chair in Metabolic Disease Research
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
May 17, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Signaling Mechanism and Therapeutic Targeting of LGR4/5/6 for the Cancer Treatment
Qingyun Jim Liu, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Center for Translational Cancer Research
Janice Davis Gordon Chair for Bowel Cancer Research
Member, Texas Therapeutics Institute
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Host: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
May 3, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "The world of viruses and its evolution"
Eugene V. Koonin, Ph.D.
NIH Distinguished Investigator
Evolutionary Genomics Research Group
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Hosts: Drs. John Tainer and Dihua Yu
April 5, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “Bring the Power of Antibodies to the Bone”
Xiao Han, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Biosciences, and Bioengineering
CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
Rice University
Hosts: Drs. Chunru Lin, Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
March 29, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “New Insights into Regeneration and Cancer of the Liver”
Li Ma, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology
Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Drs. Min Gyu Lee, Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
March 15, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “Targeting MDM2 Oncogene in Cancer Drug Discovery: Are we there yet?”
Ruiwen Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Robert L. Boblitt Endowed Professor in Drug Discovery
Director of the Drug Discovery Institute
University of Houston
Host: Dr. Dihua Yu
March 1, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “Targeting Cancer Metabolism for Diagnostics and Therapy”
H. Charles Manning, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Cancer Systems Imaging
Division of Diagnostic Imaging
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Dr. Dihua Yu
February 15, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: T-Cells: Targets and Tenacity
Cassian Yee, M.D.
Kenneth Muller Professor in Melanoma Research
Professor Melanoma Medical Oncology, Professor Immunology
Director Program in TCR-based Therapeutics
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Dr. Dihua Yu
February 8, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Tumor Cell-intrinsic and Extrinsic Determinants for Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness.
Li Xin, Ph.D.
Professor, Pritt Family Endowed Chair
Department of Urology
University of Washington
Hosts: Drs. Chunru Lin, Liuqing Yang and Dihua Yu
January 18, 2023 - 11 a.m. (CST),
Title: Mechanisms and consequences of pancreatic cancer stromal evolution
Mara Sherman, Ph.D.
Associate Member,
Cancer Biology & Genetics Program,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
December 7, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Canonical and Noncanonical Functions of MLL in Cancer
Yali Dou, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Marion and Harry Keiper Chair in Cancer Research
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California
Hosts: Drs. Min Gyu Lee and Dihua Yu
November 9, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Untangling Cellular Networks in Cancer with Single-Cell Omics, Patient Organoids, and Mouse Models.
Jeroen P. Roose, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Anatomy
University of California San Francisco
Hosts: Drs. Paul Chiao, Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
November 2, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: The Systemic Effects of Breast Cancer-derived Extracellular Vesicles.
Shizhen Emily Wang, Ph.D.
Professor, Pathology
University of California San Diego
Hosts: Drs. Honami Naora and Dihua Yu
Oct 26, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: Anti-Tumor Immunity in the Omentum: Tregs, Microbiota, and Metabolism
Troy Randall, Ph.D.
Professor-Immunology and Rheumatology
Department of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Hosts: Drs. Honami Naora and Dihua Yu
October 12, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Cardio-Oncology-A Novel Platform for Investigation"
Javid Moslehi, M.D.
William Grossman Distinguished Professor in Cardiology
Section Chief, Cardio-Oncology & Immunology
Associate Professor in Residence
UCSF School of Medicine
Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI)
Hosts: Drs. Dihua Yu, Chunru Lin and Liuqing Yang
October 5, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “Ferroaddiction in KRAS-Driven Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma”
Eric A. Collisson, M.D.
Professor in Residence
Department of Medicine
University of California San Francisco
Hosts: Drs. Haoqiang Ying and Dihua Yu
September 7, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
"Study Oxygen Sensing Pathways in Cancers"
Qing Zhang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Hosts: Drs. Chunru Lin, Liuqing Yang and Dihua Yu
FY2022
June 22, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
"Interrogation of Neoantigen-Specific T Cells Towards Improving Cancer Immunotherapy"
Matthew Gubin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Immunology
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Haoqiang Ying, Ph.D. & Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
June 8, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
"New Insights into T Cell-Mediated Tumor Control"
Mauro Di Pilato, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Immunology
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
May 25, 2022 - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Cellular and Molecular Determinant of Response to Immunotherapy"
Miriam Merad, M.D, Ph.D.
Director, Precision Immunology Institute (PrIISM)
Director, Human Immune Monitoring Core (HIMC)
Professor of Oncological Sciences and Medicine (Hem/Onc)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
May 4, 2022 - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Remodeling Chromatin in Cancer"
Emily Bernstein, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Oncological Sciences & Dermatology
Cancer Mechanisms Program Co-leader
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Hosts: Min Gyu Lee, Ph.D. & Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
April 27, 2022 - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Beyond DNA Mutations: The Roles of mRNA Alternative Cleavage and Polyadenylation in Cancer"
Shih-Han Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Genetics
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
April 6, 2022 - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Pyroptosis: A New Way to Activate Anti-tumor Immunity"
Zhibin Zhang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Immunology
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Haoqing Ying, MD, Ph.D. & Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
March 30, 2022 - 11:00 am (CST)
Title: "Modeling Mucinous Gastrointestinal Cancer"
Jae-Il Park, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Experimental Radiation Oncology
Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Min Gyu Lee, Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
March 16, 2022 - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Function characterization of genomic alterations in gastrointestinal cancer"
Yuan-Hung Lo, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Hosts: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
March 2, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Development of novel therapeutic strategies to target the DNA Damage Response in the Clinic"
Timothy Yap, MBBS, Ph.D., FRCP
Associate Professor, Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program), Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Medical Director, The Institute for Applied Cancer Science
Associate Director of Translational Research, Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
Hosts: John Tainer, Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
February 23, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "New insights into CNS immune surveillance"
Jonathan Kipnis, PhD
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Neurosurgery
Director, Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG)
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D,. Ph.D.
February 16, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Blocking Cholesterol Storage to Treat Mouse Models for Alzheimer's Disease and Niemann - Pick Type C Disease"
T.Y. Chang, Ph.D.
Elected US National Academy of Sciences Member & AAAS Fellow
Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Dartmouth Medical School
Hosts: Haoqiang Ying, M.D., Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
February 9, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Understanding causes and consequences of DNA replication stress"
Vincenzo Costanzo, MD, PhD
Director, DNA Metabolism research program
Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC) Institute for Molecular Oncology (IFOM)
Hosts: John Tainer, Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
January 26, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Filming the fate of cells that carry mutations in oncogenic driver genes"
Jacco van Rheenen, PhD
Senior Group Leader
Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the Oncode Institute
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
January 12, 2022 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “The Hippo Pathway and Cancer”
Kun-Liang Guan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center
University of California, San Diego
Hosts: Chunru Lin, Ph.D., Liuqing Yang, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
December 1, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Fill the gap between big cancer data to precision medicine"
Han Liang, Ph.D.
Barnhart Family Distinguished Professor in Targeted Therapies, Professor, Deputy Department Chair
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Division of Basic Science Research
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Hosts: Chunru Lin, Ph.D., Liuqing Yang, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
November 17, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “About Chomsky, Patterns, Noncoding RNAs and Cancer”
George Calin, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine
Co-Director, The RNA Interference and non-codingRNA Center
Co-Director, MD/PhD Program Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hosts: Chunru Lin, Ph.D., Liuqing Yang, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
November 3, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
"Inflammation, nerves and the acinar origins of pancreatic cancer"
Timothy Cragin Wang, M.D.
Chief, Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases
Silberberg Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine and Irving Cancer Research Center
Columbia University Medical Center
Hosts: Paul Chiao, Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
October 20, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Molecular and Cellular Regulation by ADP-ribosylation: From Nucleosomes to Ribosomes"
W. Lee Kraus, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences
Cecil H. and Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Reproductive Biology Sciences
University of Texas Southwestern
Hosts: Chunru Lin, Ph.D., Liuqing Yang, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
October 6, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: "Targeting MTHFD2 at the crossroad between cancer metabolism and DDR: from basic research through to pre-clinical development"
Thomas Helleday, Ph.D.
Professor, Translational, Medicine and Chemical Biology
Department of Oncology and Pathology
Karolinska Institutet Sweden
Hosts: John Tainer, Ph.D. and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
September 22, 2021 - 11 a.m. (CST)
Title: “Targeting Emerging Pathways in Neurodegeneration with Novel Therapeutics”
Jim Ray, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Neuroscience Director, Neurodegeneration Consortium
Therapeutics Discovery Division, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Host: Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.