Events Calendar

USC Physical Sciences in Oncology Center Monthly Seminar Series

Speaker: Hermann Frieboes, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering and James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville

Talk Title: Integrative Biocomputational/Experimental Modeling to Predict Tumor Growth and Treatment Response

Abstract: Cancer behavior at the system level is complex, involving multifaceted interactions of multiple cell and tissue types within a diverse environment. Many factors contribute to this complexity, including tissue micro-structure, inter- and intra-cellular signaling, angiogenesis, vascularization, and the immune response, all of which have effects across a wide range of time and length scales. Models that focus on processes at individual scales from basic science to patient bedside while neglecting to address this multiscale complexity have often proven inadequate for cancer treatment and prognosis, leading to therapies with sub-optimal results. To address this issue, we employ a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates biocomputational modeling with laboratory and clinical data to quantitatively study the effects of cellular and microenvironmental processes on cancers at the system level. This integrative process has led to progressively more accurate and biology-predictive 3D cancer models capable of representing tumor growth through the stages of avascular growth, vascularization, and tissue invasion, and that can be used to interrogate changes in the system dynamics including those related to therapeutic strategies. Our work suggests that tumor-scale growth, invasion, and drug response are predictable processes regulated by heterogeneity in the underlying interactions between genotypic, phenotypic, and microenvironmental parameters. Based on these studies, we conclude that applying a biocomputational approach can provide deeper insight into cancer behavior and treatment response, e.g., chemotherapeutic and anti-angiogenic, as well as nanotherapy. Incorporation of patient-specific data into this biocomputational modeling could enhance treatment prognosis as well as the design of more effective therapies.

Biography: USC was selected to establish a $16 million cancer research center as part of a new strategy against the disease by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and its National Cancer Institute. The new center is one of 12 in the nation to receive the designation. During the five-year initiative, the Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers will take new, nontraditional approaches to cancer research by studying the physical laws and principles of cancer; evolution and the evolutionary theory of cancer; information coding, decoding, transfer and translation in cancer; and ways to de-convolute cancer's complexity. As part of the outreach component of this grant, the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine is hosting a monthly seminar series.

Host: USC Physical Sciences in Oncology Center

Location: CSC #250

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Kristina Gerber