Plenary Speakers
Mobile Microscopy: Capturing Biology Inside and Outside the Lab
Daniel Fletcher, PhD
Department Chair
Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems, Bioengineering
Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Fletcher Lab develops diagnostic technologies and studies mechanical regulation of membrane and cytoskeleton organization in the context of cell motility, signaling, and host-pathogen interactions. We specialize in development of optical microscopy, force microscopy, and microfluidic technologies to understand fundamental organizational principles through both in vitro reconstitution and live cell experiments. Recent work includes investigating the mechano-biochemistry of branched actin network assembly with force microscopy, studying membrane deformation by protein crowding and oligomerization with model membranes, and reconstituting spindle scaling in encapsulated cytoplasmic extracts. The long-term goal of our work is to understand and harness spatial organization for therapeutic applications in cancer and infectious diseases.
On the Road to Well Validated Antibodies & More Reproducible Research
Leonard P. Freedman, PhD
Founding President & Chief Scientific Officer
Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI)
Leonard Freedman has held leadership positions in basic biomedical research, drug discovery, and science policy in both the private and non-profit sectors, as well as in academia. Prior to founding GBSI, he served as Vice Dean for Research and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University. He also led discovery research efforts in the pharmaceutical industry as a Vice President at Wyeth and Executive Director at Merck. As a faculty member of the Cell Biology & Genetics Program at both Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and at Weill Cornell Medical College, his laboratory made several highly impactful discoveries in the area of nuclear hormone receptor structure and function. Dr. Freedman’s research honors include the Boyer Award for Biomedical Research, a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health, and the 2002 Ernst Oppenheimer Award from The Endocrine Society. He served as editor of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology, as well as on the Board of Directors of the American Type Culture Collection.
Probing the Spatial Proteome
Kathryn Lilley, PhD
Professor Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge
Assistant Director of Research, the Cambridge Center for Proteomics
Research of the Lilley lab focuses on developing technologies which enable measurement of the dynamics of the proteome in a high throughput manner in space and time during cellular processes such as signaling and differentiation. Applications of these technologies include 1) DDIP (Drosophila developmental interactome project) to map the alternatively spliced proteome during the early stages of Drosophila development in a quantitative manner, and to look at its impact on protein protein interactions, sub cellular localization and protein structure, with emphasis on components of major signaling pathway proteins, and 2)Detox, which is part of a consortium to provide the first ever systematic analysis of how chemicals poison bacterial cells.
Core Facilities as Partners to Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery & Development Initiatives
Larry J. Schaaf, PhD
Director of Strategic Alliances – Drug Development Institute
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
Larry J. Schaaf, PhD, director of the Clinical Treatment Unit and the Clinical Trials Processing Laboratory Shared Resource (CTU/CTPLSR) at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, is an adjunct professor in The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy whose expertise is backed by more than 25 years of experience in conducting and analyzing phase I and phase II clinical correlative trials.
With an extensive background in pharmacokinetics and early clinical trials, Dr. Schaaf has played a key role in the development and clinical application of multiple, widely used anti-cancer drugs, including irinotecan, exemestane and epirubicin.
Dr. Schaaf received his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Arizona, his master’s degree in clinical pharmacy from the University of Iowa and his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the same university.
He has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers describing the correlative aspects of early translational trials.
