CMA Presents "Cancer, Molecular Diagnostics, and Personalized Medicine"

Over the past decade, cancer drugs have evolved from chemotherapy treatments that target all fast-growing cells to drugs that are increasingly targeted to the specific molecular lesions of cancer. This trend has heightened the importance of molecular diagnostics, which typically involves measurements of the genome and/or genome-encoded proteins. In principle, molecular diagnostic information is used to match the right patient with the right drug.

The emerging world of personalized medicine is based upon detailed molecular knowledge of a given patient. The realization of this new world is fraught with many scientific, technical, and cultural challenges. Join us as Jim Heath discusses some of these challenges, and how scientists, engineers, and clinicians are responding to meet them.

Jim Heath directs the National Cancer Institute's NanoSystems Biology (NSB) Cancer Center, which harnesses expertise at UCLA and Caltech to develop new approaches to cancer diagnostics and therapy. He worked in the group of Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley at Rice University (1984–1988) and co-invented Fullerene molecules, which led to a revolution in chemistry, including the realization of nanotubes. Dr. Heath has received a number of awards, including the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology, the Irving Weinstein Prize from the American Association of Cancer Researchers, and a Public Service Commendation from former California Governor Gray Davis. Dr. Heath was recently named by Forbes magazine as one of the seven most powerful innovators in the world.

This event is free. All members of the Campus and JPL communities and retirees are welcome. Because of security requirements, Campus personnel and JPL/Campus guests must be processed through JPL Visitor Control and escorted by a JPL employee or resident affiliate for access to the Flight Projects Center auditorium.

For more information, email [email protected] or call Emily Abbott at 626-395-6373.