Symposia And Seminars This Week

Despite the Spring semester being over, this is another busy week on the seminar front. Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 24th, brings us the annual Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant Symposium in Mayo Auditorium. Following opening remarks, the talks begin at 10:00; here is the complete schedule, and the full details can be found here:
10:00 - Rami Hannoush (Genentech)
11:15 - Leah Randles (University of Minnesota)
12:00 - Lunch and Poster Session
1:30 - Adrian Hegeman (University of Minnesota)
2:30 - Joseph Beckman (Oregon State University)
3:40 - Leona Samson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

An impressive list of speakers is then scheduled for Thursday, May 26 for The Lee W. Wattenberg Symposium on Cancer Chemoprevention: Past Achievements, Future Strategies. This event to honor Dr. Wattenberg with the AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Prevention Research is co-sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and will be held from 10:30–3:00 in the Al Johnson Great Room at McNamara Alumni Center. Click here to read a nice summary of Dr. Wattenberg's groundbreaking research for which he is being honored. Here is the schedule for the morning and afternoon sessions:


10:30–12:15
Margaret Foti (AACR) - Cancer Prevention and Its Vital Role in the Conquest of Cancer
Lee W. Wattenberg (University of Minnesota) - Late-stage Inhibition and other Strategies for Prevention of Neoplasia
Stephen S. Hecht (University of Minnesota) - Extending the Pioneering Work of Lee Wattenberg on Chemoprevention of Lung Carcinogenesis
Waun Ki Hong (University of Texas) - Personalized Approach in Lung Cancer: Reverse Migration Strategy


1:00–3:00
Allan Conney (Rutgers University) - Person-to-Person Differences in Drug Metabolism: Importance for Cancer Chemoprevention
Frank G. Ondrey (University of Minnesota) - PPAR Gamma Activation as a Strategy in Aerodigestive Cancer Prevention: A Surgeon's Perspective
Stephen Lam (British Columbia Cancer Agency) - A Pathway Approach to Lung Cancer Chemoprevention in High-risk Smokers
Frank L. Meyskens, Jr. (University of California Irvine) - Rethinking the Runway for Successful Development of Chemoprevention for the Clinic: Hard Lessons Learned
Eva Szabo (NCI) - From Mouse to Man: The Budesonide Story and What it Has Taught Us

Lastly, we are fortunate to have back at Minnesota Gerhard Höfle from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research on Friday, May 27. He will be presenting his seminar, Development of Epothilone and Tubulin Inhibitors as Anticancer Agents, at 3:00 in Room 105, 717 Delaware. Dr. Höfle is a world-renowned natural products chemist, and he has discovered dozens of bioactive natural products, including the epothilones and tubulysins, from myxobacteria. He gave the keynote lecture in 2007 at the Engebretson Symposium in Drug Discovery and Development in Natural Products, and his lecture should again be instructive and insightful.

Gerhard Höfle and I at the Engebretson Symposium in Minneapolis on November 12, 2007