Provides resources and space for networking for early-career scientists at the Annual Meeting. Follow the link above for more information. Open during poster hours.
Eleventh Annual Grant Writing Workshop
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 12 noon-5:00 p.m.
Keynote Speakers:
Stephen D. Hursting, University of Texas at Austin
Jeffrey M. Rosen, Baylor College of Medicine
Mock Study Section Chairperson:
Ethan Dmitrovsky, Dartmouth Medical School
This annual workshop for beginning
grant writers is aimed toward clinical and postdoctoral fellows; graduate and medical students
are also welcome to attend. The Workshop featured keynote presentations, a Mock Study Section, and mentored roundtable
discussion with senior AACR members. Topics included funding resources (including both NIH and other funding sources); an overview of K-awards and how transitional awards differ from the R01; writing a training program and candidate statement; formulating a well-organized grant application; addressing review criteria; and other grant writing and grantsmanship issues.
Pre-registration was required for this session. Associate Members are given preference in registration; a limited number of non-members were permitted to register. Some on-site registration may be available, space permitting.
Annual Forum for Early-Career Scientists
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 23A-C
Speakers:
Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan
Mark A. Rubin, Vice Chair for Experimental Pathology, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY
A new format for this session was debuted this year to encourage discussion among young investigators about issues that will have an impact on their career prospects and the type of research they may elect to pursue. This year's session included a forum discussion on the current role and future outlook of team science in biomedical research.
Drs. Chinnaiyan and Rubin were honored with the 2007 Team Science Award for recognition of their landmark discovery of recurrent gene fusions in a majority of prostate cancers, which has profound clinical and biological implications for understanding prostate cancers, and their embodiment of team science through interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration. Dr. Chinnaiyan is recognized for his groundbreaking work using genomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic approaches to dissect and understand cancer, particularly prostate cancer. The landmark study thus far from Dr. Chinnaiyan's laboratory is the discovery of TMPRSS2-ETS gene fusions prostate cancer. TMPRSS2-ETS gene fusions are specific markers of prostate cancer as well as presumably function as rational targets for this disease. This finding potentially redefines the molecular basis of prostate cancer as well as other common epithelial cancers. His laboratory is currently looking for ways to target this gene fusion as well as discover similar gene fusions in other common epithelial tumors such as those derived from the breast, lung, and colon. His laboratory also developed the popular cancer profiling bioinformatics resource Oncomine, which is freely available to the academic community. Dr. Rubin supervised the morphologic associations with gene fusion-status of prostate cancer specimens. His lab, in collaboration with Dr. Lee, developed the first FISH based test to detect the gene fusions in prostate biospecimens including needle biopsies. This FISH analysis provided key independent experimental evidence for the existence of recurrent gene fusions in prostate cancer. Dr. Rubin's group, working in close collaboration with investigators from Sweden and Todd Golub at Harvard, have also recently developed a potential drug target for TMPRSS2-ETS fusion prostate cancer. This on-going work has the potential of influencing the clinical care of the approximately 250,000 diagnosed each year in the United States with prostate cancer.
Getting the Job: Effectively Communicating Your Research
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Omni Hotel, Salon A & B
Chairperson: Mace L. Rothenberg, M.D., Professor, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN
Additional Speakers: Lynn M. Matrisian, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN; J. Christopher Giffin, Senior Vice President, Bench International, Beverly Hills, CA
To have a successful career in science, you not only need to do creative and cutting edge research, but also need to effectively communicate your contributions to the scientific community. But first, in order to get any job in science, whether it is a postdoctoral position, a faculty position in academia or government, or a scientist job in industry, you will need to present your previous and proposed work to potential employers. An engaging clearly presented scientific presentation with strong 
conclusions and broad implications is an absolute must for a successful job search visit. This session provided guidance on how to deliver a strong job talk.
Among the topics covered were how to make clear slides, tailor your talk to various audiences, organize your presentation, and get your points across. The session addressed topics on how to present an interview seminar, deliver a memorable take home message, answer questions, tailor the talk to the job ad, and show how your expertise fits and enhances the existing research group. The speakers discussed how to present a chalk talk - communicating ideas and future plans without slides, an elevator talk - presenting your work in 2 sentences, and how to discuss your research with future colleagues and explain how it integrates and enhances the work of others in the department.
Future Leaders, New Directions
Monday, April 14, 2008, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 6F
- Michael H. Overholtzer, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. A non-apoptotic cell death process, entosis, that occurs by cell-in-cell invasion.
- Douglas Stairs, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. The transdifferentiation of keratinocytes by expression of Cdx
transcription factors, c-myc overexpression and down-regulation of
Notch signaling: a model of Barrett's Esophagus.
- Laura Soucek, Ph.D., Assistant Research Molecular Biologist, UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA. Modeling MYC therapeutic potential in vivo.
- Mikkel Z. Oestergaard, M.Phil., Graduate Student, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK. Systematic discovery of candidate genetic interactions leading to breast cancer susceptibility.
- Mark A. LaBarge, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA. Combinational microenvironments and cell-cell relationships regulate human mammary progenitor cell fate.
- Catherine A. O'Brien, M.D., Graduate Student, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada. Characterization of colon cancer-initiating cells and the role of the BMP pathway.
This special symposium was created in 2007 at the request of Dr.
Geoffrey M. Wahl, then President of the AACR, to showcase the best and
brightest among junior researchers in the cancer fields. The Associate Member Council accepts institutional nominations in the fall of each year, from which six speakers are selected.
Exploring Career Options: Beyond the Bench or Bedside
Monday, April 14, 2008, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Omni Hotel; Salon A & B
Moderator, Sara A. Courtneidge, Program Director, Professor, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA
Panel:
Deborah E. Banker, Ph.D., VP, Dept. of Research Communications, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, White Plains, NY
Geoffrey Duyk, Managing Director, Texas Pacific Group Ventures, San Francisco, CA
Richard B. Gaynor, M.D., VP, Cancer Research & Clinical Investigation, Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, IN
T.J. Koerner, Ph.D., Director, Office of Research Information Management, American Cancer Society
Nicola McCarthy, Chief Editor, Nature Reviews Cancer, London, England
Michael Mooring, Professor, Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA
Have you ever thought about a career in industry, research administration, or academic teaching? Do you wonder what it is like to be a scientific journalist or consultant? A lively panel discussion explored career options outside academic research and the clinic. Learn from a panel of six professionals about what their jobs entail, why they chose their career path, and how to "break into" their job market.