Marcia Haigis to Keynote Present at 5th Cancer Targets & Therapeutics - July 7-8, 2014, in Boston

Boston, MA, May 21, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Marcia Haigis, Associate Professor at the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, will give a keynote presentation on “Mitochondrial Regulation of Metabolic Reprogramming in Cancer” at the 5th Cancer Targets & Therapeutics Conference to be held on July 7-8, 2014, in Boston, MA.

Tumor cells exhibit metabolic reprogramming of fuels, such as lipids, glucose and glutamine to meet their demands for energy, stress responses and generation of metabolites needed for rapid proliferation. Understanding how mitochondria contribute to tumorigenesis and emerging therapeutic resistance is a major focus in cancer biology. Mitochondrial sirtuins are NAD-dependent enzymes that bind and regulate metabolic and stress pathways within the mitochondria. It was discovered that SIRT3, a mitochondrial deacetylase, represses cellular glycolysis through the regulation of HIF1alpha, a transcription factor that increases gene expression of glycolytic targets. SIRT4, a less studied mitochondrial sirtuin, is an integral part of the metabolic response to genotoxic stress. Thus, a better understanding of sirtuin-mediated regulation may identify novel ways to therapeutically target diseases associated with aging, such as cancer.

Marcia C. Haigis, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for Medical Research. Dr. Haigis received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2002 and completed postdoctoral research at MIT. Her current work contributes to the understanding of how mitochondrial sirtuins regulate tumor cell metabolism. Dr. Haigis has received a Brookdale Leadership in Aging Award, the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award.

GTCbio's 5th Cancer Targets & Therapeutics Conference will continue to be a premier event for translational researchers, pharmacology experts, preclinical scientists and managers, and those carrying out early phase clinical trials, working to identify and exploit advances in the field in order to deliver products with a meaningful clinical impact. Both cutting-edge researchers and those who guide its commercial development will be on-hand to share their knowledge and insights as to how therapeutic cancer targets are identified, and how this research translates into meaningful therapeutics that benefit patients living with cancer.

This conference is part of the larger Novel Cancer Therapeutics Summit, which consists of two co-located parallel conferences:

5th Cancer Targets & Therapeutics Conference
3rd Oncology Partnering & Deal-Making Conference

For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com