Biotech Forum: Lee Hartwell Keynote Speaker
Baking Bread, Brewing Beer, and Curing Cancer?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
Lee Hartwell's ground-breaking research with the yeast cells used for everyday tasks like baking bread and brewing beer have lead to a more fundamental understanding of how cancer cells reproduce, and ultimately how cancer may be treated. For his research he was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine.
Dr. Hartwell's newest project involves forming an international consortium of laboratories to tackle the problem of identifying biomarkers in blood that could reveal the presence of breast cancer. Advances in technology combined with information from the human genome project offer the possibility for a major advance in biomarker discovery.
The consortium members will apply different approaches to the problem while sharing biological materials and comparing results.
Dr. Hartwell will talk about this exciting project and address the following issues:
- What are the key scientific challenges to overcome?
- What technologies must be created to help solve these challenges?
- Why will collecting and sharing data be so critical?
- How can academia and the technology industry join together to support this effort?
. What business opportunities will come with commercialization of the platforms and technologies discovered?
- What additional challenges will regulatory approval and commercialization present?
- How can business prepare for these opportunities today?
The ramifications of this project are immense, both for detecting cancer in its early stages and for monitoring patients' responses to treatment. Progress on either of these fronts will save lives.
Speaker Biography: Lee Hartwell, Ph.D., is president and director of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and also professor of genome sciences and adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Washington. He is a Nobel laureate, having received the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for his pioneering discoveries of the mechanisms of cell division. Doctor Hartwell is also the recipient of many other national and international scientific awards and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Hartwell earned his Bachelors degree at the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He engaged in postdoctoral work, and has held research appointments at the Salk Institute and at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Hartwell joined the University of Washington faculty in 1968. In 1996, he joined the faculty of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, becoming President and Director in 1997.
