2022 Program Overview

The Meeting will be held on the CSU Northridge campus (18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330)

in the Orchard Conference Center.

Campus maps and directions can be found here.


*All times below are listed in PST*

Welcome & Opening Remarks

8:00-8:05am

Orchard

Patient-Research Advocacy Presentation

8:05-8:30am

Orchard

Morning Plenary

Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich (Wayne State University)

8:30-9:30am

Orchard

Morning Session

Short Talk Session 1: Cancer Stromal Cell Types and Functions

Chair: Dr. Hilary Coller (UCLA)

Zuzana Tirpakova (Terasaki Institute) - Multicellular Hepatocellular Carcinoma Organoids to Define Mechanistic Determinants of Dormancy-driven Therapy Resistance

Audrey Todd (CSU Northridge) - Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) 3D Co-Culture May Induce Cancer Cell Dormancy

Eduardo Hernandez (CSU San Francisco) - Investigating the Interaction of Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Viral G Protein-Coupled Receptor and Angiogenic Proteins

Jennifer Waters (CSU San Diego) - Omental Preadipocytes Support Ovarian Cancer Tumorigenesis by Mediating Extracellular Matrix Reorganization by Cancer Cells

9:30-10:30am

Orchard

Break

10:30-11:00am

Orchard

Short Talk Session 2: Stress Adaptation Mechanisms

Chair: Dr. Sonya Neal (UC San Diego)

Farhana Runa (CSU Northridge) - RAI14 Promotes PDAC Progression, Associates with the PLK1/NEK6 Pathway and Correlates with Poor Outcomes

Mikella Robinson (CSU San Diego) - TWEAK-Fn14-RelB Signaling Cascade Promotes Stem Cell-Like Features that Contribute to Post-Chemotherapy Ovarian Cancer Relapse

Brandon Wong (CSU Los Angeles) - Prediction of Four Acidic Amino Acid Residues within t-Darpp that are Critical for Binding to Calcium

Joseph Alas (CSU Pomona) - Studying the Effects of Genistein on the Yeast Cell Cycle

11:00am-12:00pm

Orchard

Lunch & Poster Session

Grab lunch and visit posters to learn about new research and network.

12:00-1:30pm

Orchard

Graduate School & Career Discussion Panel

Panelists TBD

1:30-2:30pm

Orchard

Afternoon Session

Short Talk Session 3: Mechanisms of Metastasis

Chair: Joshua Neman (USC)

Gabriela Ortiz-Soto (UCC) - Involvement of the Oncoprotein Metadherin in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Progression

Elizabeth Ortiz (CSU Northridge) - Morphology and Expansion of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patient-Derived Organoids

Omar Lujano (CSU San Diego) - Chemotherapy Induced Activation of TWEAK-Fn14-NF-kB Signaling Axis Enhances Adhesion via Integrin Expression

Nikolas Yousefi (CSU Northridge) - The Role of CXCR4 and CXCR7 in Melanoma Metastasis and Migration

2:30-3:30pm

Orchard

Break

3:30-4:00pm

Orchard

Short Talk Session 4: Immuno-Oncology and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Chair: Dr. Sarah Shuck (City of Hope)

Kassy Lopez (City of Hope) - Methylglyoxal-induced Genomic DNA Adducts are Mutagenic and are Present in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Alejandro Gomez (CSU Northridge) - Gelatin Methacryloyl and Laponite bioink for 3D bioprinted Multicellular Organotypic Tumor Modeling

Kinsey Nelson (CSU San Diego) - VAX014 Activates Innate Immune Ssensing Mechanism(s) to Overcome Immune Escape in Cancer

Blake DuPriest (CSU San Jose) - Increased Intracellular pH Promotes Cell Death in the Developing Drosophila Eye

4:00-5:00pm

Orchard

Afternoon Plenary

Dr. Thea Tlsy (UC San Francisco)

5:00-6:00pm

Orchard

Presentation Awards & Closing Remarks

Dr. Jonathan Kelber

Dr. Daniel Tamae

Dr. Maria Elena de Bellard

6:00-6:30pm

Orchard