MCB 539 Molecular and Biological Basis of Cancer: Lecture Schedule

January 7 - March 12, 2020

Tuesdays and Thursdays

3:20 - 4:40 PM

Room B1-074/076 (next to Pelton Auditorium), Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch Campus

Understanding and controlling cancer is one of the major challenges of 21^st century biology. Contemporary research on cancer encompasses multiple disciplines including molecular and cellular biology, virology, structural biology, evolutionary genetics, genomics and epidemiology. This course consists of a series of lectures and discussion meetings to introduce students to the major themes in research on the etiology of neoplastic change. The lectures will cover principal molecular mechanisms responsible for tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis with a specific emphasis on oncogenic drivers and tumor suppressors and loss of normal tissue homeostasis. Background concepts and state of the art research with emphasis on current major questions in cancer biology will be presented by faculty who are experts in their fields. The discussion meetings will concentrate on selected major papers in cancer biology and be presented and discussed by the students with help and guidance of the instructors.

Grading: Student overall participation, activity during discussions, quality and depth of the research paper presentation, and the written research proposal on one of the topics in cancer biology will be used for course credit and grading.

Prerequisites: Introductory biochemistry and cell biology.

Enrollment in the course is limited to 20 students.

Introduction: Genetic Basis of Cancer

David MacPherson, PhD

MYC: An Oncogene Paradigm

Bob Eisenman, PhD

Cancer Stem Cells and Differentiation

Slobodan Beronja, PhD

Cancer Epidemiology

Chris Li, MD, PhD

The Deranged Cancer Genome

Alice Berger, PhD

Literature Review 1

Faculty Discussant: Slobodan Beronja, PhD

Viral Cancers

Denise Galloway, PhD

Nuclear Organization and Dynamics

Emily Hatch, PhD

Tumor Metabolism

Lucas Sullivan, PhD

Literature Review 2

Faculty Discussant: Lucas Sullivan, PhD

Cell Adhesion

Valeri Vasioukhin, PhD

Metastasis

Cyrus Ghajar, PhD

Protein Synthesis and Cancer

Andrew Hsieh, MD

Literature Review 3

Faculty Discussant: Andrew Hsieh, MD

Bacterial Cancer

Nina Salama, PhD

Functional Genomics in Cancer Research

Patrick Paddison, PhD

Cancer and the Immune System

Phil Greenberg, MD

Literature Review 4

Faculty Discussant: Alice Berger, PhD

Prostate Cancer

Pete Nelson, MD

Literature Review 5

Faculty Discussant: Patrick Paddison, PhD