UNC researchers present at American Association for Cancer Research’s 115th Annual Meeting

Researchers and trainees from UNC and UNC Lineberger at will present more than 30 talks and participate in scientific and educational panels and discussions on the latest cancer research at the American Association for Cancer Research’s 115th Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif., April 5-10.

The meeting, which last year brought together more than 21,000 attendees from around the world, features presentations on basic, translational, and clinical cancer research as well as cancer prevention, cancer survivorship and advocacy.

The UNC Lineberger presentations include:

Saturday, April 6

Education Session

ED24 – Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy for Non-Immunologists Session: Strategies for Enhancing Adoptive Cellular Immunotherapy and Reprogramming the Tumor Microenvironment

10 – 11:30 a.m.    |    Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center

10:40 – 11 a.m.: Unlocking T cell potency by reprogramming the TME: Focusing on myeloid cells

Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD

 

Sunday, April 7

Poster Session

PO.CL09.01 – Radiation Oncology

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 45

1123 / 17 – Genomic characterization of radiotherapy-associated bladder cancer

Ari Wijetunga, MD, PhD, MS

 

PO.TB04.04 – Membrane, Biophysical, and EMT Aspects of Motility/Metastasis

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 8

193 / 2 – Melanoma cytoskeletal dynamics, membrane remodeling, and motility are regulated by TRIM9

Kimberly Lukasik

 

PO.ET06.01 – Identification of Molecular Targets

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 36

577 / 30 – Deciphering the mechanism of the menin-MLL complex dependency in HCC

Margarita Dzama, PhD

 

PO.BCS01.01 – Application of Bioinformatics to Cancer Biology 1

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 36

874 / 18 – Expanded detection of BAP1 alterations in cancer and comparison of tumor type-specific gene expression scores

Ian Sturgill, MA

---

Patient Advocate Poster Symposium 

3 – 4:30 p.m.     |    Room 1 – Upper Level – Convention Center

Moderator: Patricia Spears

---

Personalized Career Conversations

5  – 7 p.m.     |    Grand Hall CD – Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego

Chair: Antonio T. Baines, PhD

 

Monday, April 8

Poster Session

PO.SHP01.01 – Science and Health Policy

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 1

1291 / 5 – ASPIRE: Advocates and Scientists Partner in Research Education

Laurie Betts, PhD

 

PO.MCB09.02 – Metabolic Pathways 2

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 18 

1790 / 12 – Pyruvate carboxylase regulates tumor progression through central carbon metabolism and immunosuppression

Michael Coleman, PhD

 

PO.CL06.11 – Immunomodulatory Interventions and Mechanisms

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 42

2464 / 8 – Defective NMD promotes aberrant intron retention in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Mi Zhou, PhD

 

PO.ET03.04 – Drug Resistance 2: Ras GTPase

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 24

1936 / 14 – KEAP1-NRF2 mediated resistance against KRASG12D inhibitor in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Wen-Hsuan Chang

 

PO.PR02.01 – Role of Diet, Nutrition, and the Microbiome Across the Cancer Continuum

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 32

2168 / 2 – Intermittent fasting in combination with carboplatin in a pre-clinical model of obesity-driven endometrial cancer

Jennifer Haag, MD

 

2188 / 22 – Tirzepatide treatment restores antitumor immunity in a model of obesity-driven cancer

Michael Coleman, PhD

 

2189 / 23 – Tirzepatide mitigates obesity-associated metabolic dysregulation and tumor progression in a mouse model of triple-negative breast cancer

Elaine Glenny, PhD

 

2190 / 24 – Transcriptomic signatures of obesity-driven colon cancer: A multi-species transdisciplinary approach

Elaine Glenny, PhD

 

PO.SHP01.01 – Science and Health Policy

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 1

1300 / 14 – A collaborative approach to enhance tissue donation for cancer research; the UNC Patients and Researchers Together (PART) Program

Patty Spears

---

Major Symposium

SY46 – Communication between DNA Damage and Immune Responses in Cancer

12:30 – 2 p.m.     |    Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center

12:35 – 12:50 p.m. Innate immune sensing of DNA damage during cancer initiation and therapy

Gaorav Gupta, MD, PhD

---

Poster Session

PO.ET01.03 – Cancer Biology and Metastasis

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 22

3159 / 7 – VHL1 activation with a CRISPR-based gene activation platform causes increased MLKL expression and triggers necroptosis in renal cell carcinoma

Manfred Meng

 

PO.MCB09.04 – Signaling Pathways That Regulate Metabolism 1

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 19

3081 / 21 – Targeting lipid kinases to enhance autophagy inhibition for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Elyse Schechter

 

Session PO.PR01.02 – Cancer Control and Survivorship

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 31

3408 / 10 – ‘Survivor mentality’: The meaning of survivorship among Black cancer survivors

Nathaniel Woodard, PhD

---

Forum

FO07 – Breaking the Obesity-Cancer Link: The Role of Incretin Mimetics

5 – 6:30 p.m.     |    Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center

Chair: Stephen D. Hursting, PhD

 

5 – 5:10 p.m. Breaking the obesity-cancer link: Introduction

Stephen D. Hursting, PhD

 

Tuesday, April 9

Poster Session

PO.ET01.04 – Mechanisms of Drug Resistance and Novel Combinations 

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 25

4614 / 12 – Inhibition of NEK2 promotes chemosensitivity and reduces primary effusion lymphoma burden

Maria White, PhD, MS

 

PO.ET02.08 – New Targets

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 25

5909 / 23 – Sulindac exhibits anti-proliferative effects in pre-clinical models of ovarian cancer

Nikita Sinha, MD

 

PO.ET01.05 – Novel Biologic Therapies and Therapeutic Targets

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 27

5965 / 13 – First-in-class chemical induced proximity system achieves dose-dependent control of TP53 activation in gastric cancer

Ryan Kemper

---

Forum

FO04 – Can Trust in Science Help Us Decrease Cancer Health Care Disparities and Increase Clinical Trials Participation?

5 – 6:30 p.m.     |    Room 33 – Upper Level – Convention Center

5:10 – 5:25 p.m.  Communicating with all patients: Building trust

Patricia Spears

---

Poster Session

LBPO.BCS02 – Late-Breaking Research: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Systems Biology, and Convergent Science 2

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 51

LB253 / 14 – Crafted experiments to evaluate feature selection methods for single cell RNA-seq data

Siyao Liu, MSc

 

PO.ET09.03 – HDAC and Methyltransferase Inhibitors

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 24

4588 / 10 – Combination of MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor and direct mutant-selective KRAS inhibitors as a novel therapeutic approach for MTAP-deficient pancreatic cancer

Kristina Drizyte-Miller, PhD

---

Advances in Organ Site Research

AOS06 – Unwrapping Heterogeneity in Pancreatic Cancer

10:15 – 11:45 a.m.     |    Ballroom 6 CF – Upper Level – Convention Center

Chair: Jen Jen Yeh, MD

11:23 – 11:41 a.m. Beyond tumor heterogeneity

Jen Jen Yeh, MD

---

Poster Session

PO.CL07.03 – Pediatric Clinical Research and Late Effects

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 42

6377 / 8 – UNC AYA Cancer Program: Reach and influence on cancer care delivery

Jacob Stein, MD, MPH

 

PO.BCS02.01 – Integrative Cancer Science

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 36

6213 / 16 – Determination of permissive and restraining cancer-associated fibroblast (DeCAF) subtypes

Xianlu Laura Peng, PhD

 

PO.CH03.01 – Structural and Chemical Biology

1:30 – 5 p.m.     |    Section 21

5783 / 18 – Receptor tyrosine kinase Tyro3 interaction with ligands and inhibitors

Keisha Hardeman, PhD

---

Minisymposium

MS.BCS02.01 – Computational Approaches to Precision Medicine

2:30 – 4:30 p.m.     |    Ballroom 20 AB – Upper Level – Convention Center

4:05 – 4:20 p.m. 6549 – Mechanistic models of tumor and patient heterogeneity explain and predict clinical outcomes of large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) treatment

Amy Pomeroy, PhD

 

Wednesday, April 10

Poster Session

PO.BCS01.05 – Application of Bioinformatics to Cancer Biology 5 

9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.     |    Section 33

7348 / 5 – CytoCellDB: A gold standard database for classification and analysis of extrachromosomal DNA in cancer

Elizabeth Brunk, PhD