Join the Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine author webinar series to explore the latest impactful research published in the journal.
Take part in these short and essential webinars to enrich your research and take this opportunity to chat with experts in the field of molecular medicine. Each webinar will include a short presentation from the author, followed by a discussion session with the audience.
Past Webinars
The importance of radiobiological studies for the advancement of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT)
Speaker: Andrea Monti Hughes, PhD - National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina
Background: Andrea is a senior researcher at the National Atomic Energy Commission and the National Research Council of Argentina. She is devoted to the study of the radiobiology of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), a selective particle therapy that combines the administration of boron compounds that accumulate preferentially in tumor tissue with a thermal neutron irradiation. Her main interests are the study of BNCT for the treatment of oral cancer and precancer. With national and international collaborations, she evaluates new boron compounds and strategies to optimize BNCT therapeutic efficacy and to reduce BNCT-induced toxicity. She also coordinated BNCT clinical-veterinary studies in dogs with head and neck cancer with no other treatment option. She is a member of the Board of Councillors, the Communication task force and the Radiobiology working group of the ISNCT (International Society of Neutron Capture Therapy, https://isnct.net/) and of the PTCOG (Particle Cooperative Group) BNCT Working group.
Click here to view Andrea's paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
DLX6-AS1: a putative lncRNA candidate in multiple human cancers
Speaker: Paola Dama achieved her MS degree in Cellular Biology at University Federico II in Naples (IT).
Background: As an undergraduate student at TIGEM, she published a study on the approach of gene therapy in the MSD, a rare metabolic genetic disease in a mouse model.
She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Oncology at the University of Ferrara (IT) and at The Ohio State University in Columbus (OH, USA) under the supervision of Stefano Volinia and the mentoring of Carlo Croce, leading a study of miRNAs in pluripotent stem cells and metastasis in invasive breast cancer and gliomas.
She conducted her first post-doctoral studies at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of The Ohio State University assessing the functional role of key drivers candidates of endometrial tumorigenesis. At the University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago (IL, USA) she specialized in immunotherapy in Leukemias and Lymphomas, using effective methods to detect neoantigens from human tissues and describing the role of checkpoint inhibitors in leukemia patients treated with chemotherapy.
She’s currently a research fellow at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex in Brighton (UK). The aim of Paola’s research is to investigate the role of coding and non-coding alterations on cancer pathogenesis and progression with specific emphasis on the development of a new method to identify new miRNAs targets in Pancreatic cancer guided by Crispr/Cas9 and next-generation sequencing technologies.
Since 2020 Paola collaborate with Mohsen Sheykhhasan of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Department of Medicine in Iran. They are co-authors of two reviews and others are in preparation.
Click here to view Paola’s paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
Click here to view the webinar video recording.
Preclinical Models of Glioblastoma: Limitations of Current Models and the Promise of New Developments
Speaker One: Dr. Anke Brüning-Richardson
Background: Anke is a senior lecturer and brain tumour researcher at the University of Huddersfield. Her research focuses on mechanisms of cell migration and targeting the migratory/invasive behaviour of cancer cells with focus on paediatric and adult gliomas. She is particularly interested in the development of diagnostics and novel treatment approaches for improved survival in patients which has led to the identification of potential biomarkers and novel small molecule inhibitors to target cell migration.
Speaker Two: Dr. Peng Liu
Background: Peng is a research fellow in the Institute of Medical Science, University of Aberdeen, working with Professor Valerie Speirs. As a cancer biologist, she focuses mainly on developing and applying advanced 3D cell culture models to investigate the biology of tumour microenvironment and further enhance the impact of animal free research. Peng obtained her PhD at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, studying the role of dietary isothiocyanates in cancer prevention and angiogenesis.
Click here to view Anke and Peng’s paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
Click here to view the webinar video recording.
The pro- and anti-tumourigenic roles of Interleukin 1B in breast cancer bone metastasis
Speaker: Dr. Penny Ottewell
Background: Dr Penny Ottewell is a Senior Lecturer in Bone Oncology at the University of Sheffield. Research in her laboratory focuses on using humanised and immune competent models to idendify mechanisms that drive breast and prostate cancer relapse and metastasis to bone. Penny has been awarded has been awarded a total of 13 national and international prizes for her research in this area including the International Bone and Mineral Socienty Gregory Mundy Research Fellowship. Additionally, Penny is a member of the Grant Review Committees for Breast Cancer Now (UK) and The National Science Centre, (Poland). Penny also serves as Chair of the ECMC JING organsing committee and has previously been a member of the Cancer and Bone Society Executive Committee, the Executive Committee of the British Association for Cancer Research. Current research in the Ottewell laboratory is funded by research grants from AstraZeneca, the MRC, Breast Cancer Now and Weston park Cancer Charity.
Click here to view Penny's paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
Click here to view the webinar video recording.
Warburg and Krebs and related effects in cancer
Speaker: Judith Unterlass
Background: Judith is a cancer biologist leading drug discovery projects from target validation to lead optimisation within the in-vitro biology department of Evotec, Toulouse. She has a particular interest in the development of drugs targeting cancer metabolism and protein homeostasis as well as investigating drug resistance mechanisms. Dr Unterlass completed her postdoctoral studies at Karolinska Institute, Sweden and obtained her PhD at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, UK.
Click here to view Judith’s paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
Click here to view the webinar video recording.
DNA damage checkpoint kinases in cancer
Speaker One: Hannah Smith
Background: Hannah is a final year PhD student at the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer Research, UK. Her current research interest is in the DNA damage response and in particular exploiting defective repair pathways in cancer cells with the aim to enhance the therapeutic potential of current treatments. Her PhD is focused on combining PARP inhibition with cell cycle checkpoint inhibition to explore synergy and the mechanisms underpinning this.
Speaker Two: Harriet Southgate
Background: Harriet has just completed her PhD examining the effects of DNA damage response inhibitors in preclinical models of childhood neuroblastoma at the Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre, Newcastle University, UK. She is particularly interested in mechanisms of DNA replication stress and how this can be exploited to enhance cancer treatment.
Click here to view Hannah and Harriet’s paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.
Click here to view the webinar video recording.
The radiobiology of HPV-positive and HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Speaker: Jason Parsons
Background: Dr Parsons is a radiation biologist, whose research is focussed on the biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology of ionising radiation. His main interests are on examining the biology of radiation of different ionisation densities, particularly proton beam therapy and other high-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation in comparison to low-LET photons, and particularly its impact on the signalling and processing of DNA damage. Research is largely centred on models of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), but also on other radioresistant cancers including glioblastoma, and on identifying optimal strategies to sensitise these cancers to radiotherapy.
Click here to view Jason’s paper published in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine.