Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, M.D., Ph.D., who won the 2004 chemistry prize, will discuss his research during a dinner address on March 16 at the Israel Museum. Hershko, a member of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, was honored for his discovery of ubiquitin, a molecule that helps flag a protein to be broken down. This system is used in a variety of cell processes including the immune system, cell division, and DNA repair. Errors in the system can lead to diseases such as cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis.
Scientists at the conference will address research advances in cancer genetics; cell signaling at the DNA/RNA level; immune system therapies; targeted treatments; novel approaches to breast cancer and solid tumors; and stem cell transplantation in the treatment of leukemia. A mini-symposium will address environmental causes of cancer.
Israeli scientists made some of the first discoveries implicating the p53 gene in cancer, now considered the most commonly mutated cancer-related gene, Levitsky said. They also contributed to current understanding of bone marrow transplant and stem cells, he said.
For more information about the conference, see http://www.novel-approaches.net/index.asp or http://www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org .
Conference sponsors include the Braman Family Foundation, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI), and the Israel Cancer Association in Israel and the United States.
Levitsky and colleagues hope to make the conference an annual event, alternating between American and Israeli locations.
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Contact: Vanessa Wasta or Amy Heaps
wastava@jhmi.edu
410-955-1287
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
1-Mar-2005