Description:

The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics presents:

Ekta Khurana, PhD
Associate Professor of Computational Genomics
WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar   
Co-leader of the Genetics and Epigenetics Program at Meyer Cancer Center 
Associate Director, Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology and Medicine
Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Presentation:

"Cancer evolution through the lens of the non-coding genome"

Abstract: 

After decades of research on understanding cancer growth and treatment resistance, numerous unanswered questions remain that constitute some of the biggest challenges in cancer research. I will discuss our approach to addressing these questions through the lens of the non-coding regulatory regions. I will discuss the novel computational methods we have developed to analyze whole-genome sequencing data and identify drivers of tumor growth. I will also discuss how generating a map of the regulatory regions in castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer revealed dependencies that can be therapeutically targeted. Thus, the evolution of non-coding regions can reveal basic and translational insights about initial cancer growth and emergence of lineage plasticity in treatment resistant tumors.

Host: Dr. Feng Yue, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and Pathology