CHF and The Wistar Institute present a conversation about cancer, the disease that claims 1,500 lives a day.
About the Event
Evolving cancer therapies will be discussed, from the travails of 19th-century medicine, to the increasing success of 20th-century care, to the promising research under way today that gives hope for the future.
Dario C. Altieri, director of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center, and Stephen J. Lippard, the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will appear in conversation with Russel E. Kaufman, president and CEO of The Wistar Institute, and Thomas R. Tritton, president and CEO of CHF.
Carin Berkowitz, associate director of CHF's Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, will serve as emcee.
Join this important conversation—and peek into the future of biomedical research.
Given how far our understanding of cancer at the clinical, tissue, cellular, and molecular levels has come in the past 100 years, it is feasible to think that a major reduction in cancer incidence and mortality is within our reach.
History Live presents first-person accounts of legendary careers before a live audience.
CHF’s Oral History Program captures and preserves the oral memoirs of notable figures in chemistry and related fields.
For additional information, please contact Nancy Vonada, manager of events and donor relations, at 215.873.8226 or nvonada@chemheritage.org.
Event Schedule
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
| 5:30 p.m. |
Cocktail reception |
| 6:30 p.m. |
History Live conversation |
Speaker Biographies
Dario C. Altieri
Dario C. Altieri
Dario C. Altieri is director of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center and chief scientific officer at The Wistar Institute. Altieri was formerly a professor at the Yale University School of Medicine and founding chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In 2005 he cofounded both the National Cancer Biology Training Consortium, which promotes scientific excellence in the next generation of cancer researchers, and the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance, an all-volunteer patient advocacy organization devoted to supporting pancreatic cancer research and education.
Altieri began his current position at The Wistar Institute in 2010. Altieri’s work explores the mechanisms that underlie how tumor cells survive and proliferate in cancer. In particular members of his laboratory investigate how tumor cells evade the normal processes that cause cells with genetic faults to self-destruct. Understanding these mechanisms could provide new therapeutic targets and novel approaches for virtually every type of human cancer. To date Altieri’s research has resulted in nine patents and over 170 scientific articles.
Altieri earned a Ph.D. and postgraduate specialty degree in clinical and experimental hematology at the University of Milan School of Medicine.
Stephen J. Lippard
Stephen J. Lippard
Stephen J. Lippard is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Lippard's research activities span the fields of inorganic chemistry, biological chemistry, and neurochemistry. His work includes studies to understand and improve platinum anticancer drugs, the synthesis of diiron complexes as models for carboxylate-bridged diiron metalloenzymes, and investigations of inorganic neurotransmitters and signal transducers, especially nitric oxide and zinc.
The chemistry investigated in Lippard's laboratory explores the interface between inorganic chemistry and biology. Core activities include structural and mechanistic studies of macromolecules as well as synthetic inorganic chemistry. The focus is on the synthesis, reactions, physical and structural properties of metal complexes as models for the active sites of metalloproteins and as anti-cancer drugs. Also included is extensive structural and mechanistic work on the natural systems themselves. A program in metalloneurochemistry devises small molecule probes of inorganic ions and molecules that are involved in cell signaling and applies them to study neurotransmission.
Lippard received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Haverford College and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Event Sponsors
This event is being held in collaboration with The Wistar Institute, an independent nonprofit biomedical research institute that has been dedicated to expanding the boundaries of knowledge of biology and medicine for more than a century.
CHF’s Oral History Program is generously supported by The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts (The Pew Biomedical Scholars Oral History Project).
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CHF gratefully acknowledges support from The Bryn Mawr Trust Company for this History Live event. |
This event is part of CHF’s year-long celebration of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011), a United Nations–designated initiative celebrating chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.