American Cancer Society Exceptional Event

Spark of Imagination is a unique event scheduled for November 13, 2015 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Our goal is to bring the tech, bio-tech and cancer research community together for an inspirational night where we will honor our local researchers.

Spark of Imagination

The stage program is designed to enlighten, inspire, and motivate our community to work together toward our common goal: a world without cancer. This year’s theme is Global Health, Local Solutions. Our biggest health challenges affect all of us on a global scale, yet many of the solutions begin at the local and individual level. We will focus on what we can do as individuals, families, communities, and corporations to create meaningful change. It will help us move forward boldly and swiftly to take control of our health and health care, and will set a tone of inspiration and empowerment to motivate us to action as part of the solution.

Attendees will hear insightful talks from American Cancer Society (ACS) funded researchers: Dr. Ken Anderson from Dana Farber and Dr. Kevin Shannon from UCSF. Following their talks, guests will have the opportunity to network and learn about the latest research advances in our innovation reception and breakthrough lab. I am proud to say there is no other event like this in the country.

Estimated Event Timeline:

5:00-6:30pm VIP Cocktail Reception – with Researchers, Speakers and sponsors.

6:00 -6:15pm Check In

6:30-8:00pm Global Health Local Solutions Stage Performance –Individual Tickets $200

Researcher talks and performance by Kari Kirk, Soprano Singer.

8:00-9:30pm Innovation Reception and Breakthrough Lab –

Refreshments, networking and informal research talks in our breakthrough lab.

Sign up at www.ASPARKOFIMAGINATION.ORG

We have many exciting opportunities but wanted to highlight these unique opportunities:

Breakthrough Lab Sponsor - $10,000

? 6 tickets to VIP Reception, Stage Performance, Innovation Reception and Breakthrough Lab

? Exhibit your companies latest cancer related advances in our breakthrough lab.

? Sponsor name in event program and on event signage

? Two tributes or memorials to honor or remember someone with cancer

OR Sponsor a Researcher in the Breakthrough Lab $1,000

? 2 tickets to VIP Reception, Stage Performance, Innovation Reception and Breakthrough Lab

? One tribute or memorial to honor or remember someone with cancer.

For More Information please contact: Emily McNaughton 747 Camden Ave. #B, Campbell, CA 95008 T: 408-688-0108 E: [email protected]

Spark of Imagination

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Ken Anderson, MD

Tumor Traducer

Ken will share his experience and reflect on what he has learned

during his career-long quest to identify the environment in which

cancerous tumors grow.

Over the last three decades, Ken has focused his laboratory and clinical research studies on multiple myeloma. He has developed laboratory and animal models of the tumor in it is microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted therapies, and has then rapidly translated these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of novel targeted therapies. His paradigm for identifying and validating targets in the tumor cell and its milieu has transformed myeloma therapy and markedly improved patient outcome.

Dr. Anderson is an American Cancer Society Research Professor, the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as Director of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is also a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist. He is a recipient of many scientific and humanitarian awards, and his body of work has proved transformational to the treatments of myeloma and better outcomes for patients.

Kevin Shannon, MD

Cancer Mutation Maverick

This UCSF researcher will share the personal and professional

lessons he learned while using genetics to identify and attack

the cancer-causing mutations responsible for leukemia

Kevin Shannon, MD is a veteran of the U.S. Naval Medical Corp, and is the Auerback Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Shannon received his MD from Cornell University, obtained residency training in pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. His research focuses on normal and leukemic hematopoiesis with emphasis on underlying causes of transformation, molecular therapeutics, and drug resistance. He currently serves on the American Cancer Society’s Extramural Research Council, NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, holds multiple awards and academic honors. For More Information please contact: Emily McNaughton 747 Camden Ave. #B, Campbell, CA 95008 T: 408-688-0108 E: [email protected]

Spark of Imagination

At Spark of Imagination we are also honoring all of our current, locally funded researchers, and the following will be attending the event and highlighted in our breakthrough lab:

Douglas Brownfield, PhD, of Stanford University will look for new ways to target a type of cell recently identified by his lab and others as the most prominent cell of origin for adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. The long-term goal of the work is to elucidate how the cells, called alveolar type (AT) 2 cells regenerate, and use that information to identify new ways of diagnosing transformed AT2 cells at earlier stages of malignancy and to find new treatments that target the cell of origin for lung adenocarcinoma.

Scott Carlson, PhD of Stanford University

I study post-translational modification of lysine, especially how mutations disrupt these pathways in disease. My postdoc research focuses on non-histone methylation methylation in RNA splicing. I've developed global approaches to find the proteins that "read", "write" and "erase" methylation. I'm using these tools along with high-throughput sequencing, molecular and cell biology to understand the role of methylation as part of a post-translational splicing code.

J. Aaron Crapster, PhD of Stanford University - Bio coming!

J.T. Neal is a fourth year Postdoctoral Scholar in the Hematology Division of the Stanford School of Medicine. He works in the laboratory of Dr. Calvin Kuo on the epigenetic mechanisms of gene activation in colon cancer and on the development of novel 3D culture models for the study of human tumors. J.T. is a current co-chair of the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (SURPAS), and also serves as a National Postdoctoral Association Liaison to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Group on Graduate Education and Training (GREAT).

From UC Santa Cruz

Seth Rubin, PhD

Our broad research interests are in understanding the biochemical mechanisms that control the cell cycle. Cell growth and division are carefully coordinated by a shifting network of biomolecular interactions. Protein interactions regulate enzymatic activities responsible for key cell cycle events such as DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cytokinesis. These events have strict spatial and temporal requirements for proper cell cycle function, and deregulation of protein interaction networks in commonly associated with aberrant cell proliferation and cancer. Understanding mechanisms of cell cycle control requires a detailed molecular picture of protein-protein interactions and how these interactions regulate enzymatic function and cellular architecture. Our laboratory seeks to elucidate the biochemical determinants of protein interaction affinity and specificity and how these factors are affected by regulator modifications to protein composition and structure. We apply a variety of structural and biochemical techniques to learn in molecular detail how structural changes and chemical modifications affect biological function.

Camilla Forsberg, PhD from UC Santa Cruz

The Forsberg lab focuses on stem cell fate decisions of the blood system. Hematopoietic stem cells are responsible for generating a life-long supply of mature blood cells. Each stem cell is capable of making all of the mature blood cell types with widely different functions: some blood cells specialize in carrying oxygen, others fight off infections, and still others prevent bleeding in the process of blood clotting. How does a stem cell decide which cell type to give rise to? Are these decisions made by the stem cell itself, by its descendant multipotent progenitors, or both? How are these decisions dysregulated to cause cancer and other disorders?

We tackle these questions from multiple angles - by in vivo and in vitro experimental approaches, by focusing on specific molecules as well as analyzing global changes. Ultimately, we want to understand the molecular determinants of hematopoietic stem cell fate decisions so that we can prevent and treat both genetic and acquired disorders of the hematopoietic system, including anemia, autoimmune disease, leukemias and lymphomas. For More Information please contact: Emily McNaughton 747 Camden Ave. #B, Campbell, CA 95008 T: 408-688-0108 E: [email protected]

Spark of Imagination

From UC San Francisco:

Crystal Conn, PhD

Crystal received her B.S. in Biochemical Molecular Biology from Penn State University and completed her Ph.D. in 2013 from Cornell University. She joined the Ruggero lab in Fall 2013 to pursue the study of mRNA translational regulation, and the molecular mechanisms behind elF4E-dependent control during the oncogenic stress response in cancer. She is currently testing the therapeutic implications of targeting translation initiation in combination with oncogenic stress response pathways using novel genetic mouse models and pharmacological agents.

Sueann Mark, PhD – Bio Coming!

Bettina Van Lengerich, PhD

The main interest of our laboratory is to understand molecular principles of signal transduction events. We investigate them at the level of enzymatic function and molecular structure of signaling proteins. Our current focus is on understanding how membrane-associated kinases, such as receptor tyrosine kinases, assemble into functional complexes and interface with the plasma membrane. We also investigate alternative non-catalytic roles of kinase scaffolds and seek to identify small molecule inhibitors that target these poorly understood kinase functions in human diseases.

Anica Wandler, PhD

Mechanisms of Response and Resistance in T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive disease characterized by aberrant proliferation of T-lymphoblasts. Recent data has demonstrated a high incidence of both Ras pathway mutations and NOTCH1 mutations in human T-ALLs. Previous work in our lab used retroviral insertional mutagenesis (RIM) to generate T-ALLs in both wild type mice, and those expressing oncogenic KrasG12Dfrom the endogenous locus. Treatment of these mice with targeted inhibitors of downstream Ras pathway components uncovered variability in both the initial response and acquired resistance to therapy. The goal of my project is to determine the mechanisms which determine how T-ALLs respond to drug treatment using several approaches. First, I will use whole exome sequencing to interrogate the “outlier” T-ALLs which show robust de novo sensitivity or resistance to therapy as a method of identifying genes which determine drug response. I am also investigating how mechanisms of response and resistance are affected by the type of therapy administered. To address this, I will perform a pre-clinical trial in the T-ALLs generated by RIM to examine response to glucocorticoids, a conventional chemotherapy drug, alone and in combination with a targeted therapy. Finally, I am examining potential effects of Notch1-independent mechanisms of T-ALL pathogenesis on response to therapy using cell lines derived from RIM-induced T-ALLs that do not exhibit Notch1 mutations.

For More Information please contact: Emily McNaughton 747 Camden Ave. #B, Campbell, CA 95008 T: 408-688-0108 E: [email protected]