Organizers: James Crowell, Ph.D. and John Gohagan, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health Wednesday, August 30, 2006: 8.00 AM-12.00 Noon

Speakers:
James Crowell, US National Cancer Institute
John Gohagan, US National Cancer Institute
Eric Kunkel, BioSeek Inc., San Francisco CA
Dexter Pratt, Oncology Discovery Group, Genstruct Inc. Cambridge, MA
Dorit Arlt, Division of Molecular Genome Analysis, DKFZ, Heidelberg, European Bioinformatics Institute
Herbert Sauro, Keck Graduate Institute and the California Institute of Technology, Claremont, CA
Forest White, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston MA
Bridget Schoeberl, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge MA
Frank Douglas, Executive Director, MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation

Summary:
Carcinogenesis is a process that typically develops over decades.  The underlying imbalances between cell division, differentiation, and apoptosis are due to genetic mutations and epigenetic alterations that lead, in part, to derangements in signaling pathways.  Advances in “omics,” materials science, imaging, and other technologies are providing new opportunities for molecularly targeted interventions, alone and in combination and hopefully with fewer toxicities.  Experimental and computational approaches to designing and interrogating complex laboratory systems and to organizing vast amounts of data into systems frameworks will inform decision making for drug development in cancer prevention and treatment.  In these sessions the speakers will present systems biology approaches using causal analysis (Session I top down view) and quantitative approaches (Session II bottom up view) in the context of how these approaches may inform pharmaceutical development in cancer.

Schedule:
I. Session One (James Crowell, US National Cancer Institute, moderator)
A.Eric Kunkel, BioSeek Inc., San Francisco CA
Systems biology in drug discovery (20 minutes, 5 min for questions)

B.Dexter Pratt, Oncology Discovery Group, Genstruct Inc. Cambridge, MA
Computational causal reasoning models of mechanisms of androgen stimulation in prostate cancer (15 minutes, 5 min questions)

C.Dorit Arlt, Division of Molecular Genome Analysis, DKFZ, Heidelberg, European Bioinformatics Institute
Modeling breast cell cycle regulation - overcoming drug resistance (15 minutes, 5 min questions).

Short Break

II. Session Two (John Gohagan, US National Cancer Institute, moderator)
A.Herbert Sauro, Keck Graduate Institute and the California Institute of Technology, Claremont, CA
Simulation of biochemical networks - Cellular networks as dynamic control systems (20 minutes, 5 min questions)

B.Forest White, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston MA
Cell system perturbation for time-resolved quantification of tyrosine phosphorylation in complex samples (15 minutes, 5 min questions)

C.Bridget Schoeberl, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge MA
ODE-based model of the EGFR/MAPK signaling network (15 minutes, 5 min questions)

III. Summary and Discussion
Frank Douglas, Executive Director, MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation (20 minutes)