Nanocourse: "Cancer and Stem Cells"

Date: 

Monday, December 8, 2014, 11:00am to 3:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Medical School, New Research Building, Room 350, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA

Session one (Dec. 8) is open to the public.  Session two, for registered students only, will be held on Friday, December 12, 2014 from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., at a location TBD.  Drop deadline for student registration is Monday, December 1, 2014.  https://nanosandothercourses.hms.harvard.edu/node/349

Faculty:
Fernando Camargo, PhD - Boston Children's Hospital
Carla Kim, PhD - Boston Children's Hospital
David Langenau, PhD - Boston Children's Hospital

Curriculum Fellows:
Abha Ahuja, PhD and Megan Mittelstadt, PhD

Description:
An active area of research in Cancer Biology is to determine the cellular origins of tumors and to understand the functional impact of tumor cell heterogeneity, especially as these concepts may pertain to tumor progression, metastasis, and therapy response and resistance.  Cancer stem cells are defined by their unique ability to propagate the tumor; these tumor-propagating cells have stem cell-like features including self-renewal.  The similarities and differences between normal tissue-specific stem cells and cancer stem cells are under active investigation. This course aims to cover the fundamentals and current controversies surrounding cancer stem cells.  We will address the concepts of cancer stem cell biology, cells of origin of malignancy, and tumor cell evolution, as well as different models to study the concept of tumor cell heterogeneity.