Institute seminar May 25th Randi Gussgard Syljuåsen
The upcoming Institute Seminar at the Institute for Cancer Research will take place on Wednesday 25th of May at 12:00 in the Auditorium in the Research Building at Montebello with the following speaker:
Dr. Randi Gussgard Syljuåsen, Group Leader at Dept. Radiation Biology, Institute for Cancer Research
Title of her talk: "Inhibition of DNA damage checkpoint kinases for cancer treatment: mechanisms and strategies"
Inhibitors of checkpoint kinases ATR, Chk1 and Wee1 are currently being tested in preclinical and clinical studies. The rationale behind using such inhibitors for cancer therapy is sensitization of tumors to radiotherapy or chemotherapy by abrogation of the G2 checkpoint and inhibition of DNA repair. Furthermore, inhibition of these kinases can also cause cytotoxic DNA damage in S-phase cells, even in the absence of other DNA damaging agents. To better understand the mechanisms behind the S-phase specific DNA damage and to identify promising combination treatments for cancer, we have conducted a large-scale flow cytometry-based screen for compounds that cause increased DNA damage in S-phase when combined with the Wee1 inhibitor MK1775. The screen results and subsequent follow-up studies will be presented together with a brief overview of the principles how inhibitors of DNA damage checkpoint kinases may be applied as anticancer agents.
Links:
Home page for Randi Gussgard Syljuåsen's Radiation Biology and DNA Damage Signaling group
Randi Gussgard Syljuåsen's CV and publicatins
Department of Radiation Biology