The Department of Biochemistry's weekly BCH 252 seminar series is presented this week by:

Dr. Rosalie C. Sears, Professor, Dept. of Molecular and Medical Genetics, Co-Director, Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University

Seminar Title: "Dynamic post-translational regulation of MYC supports cancer cell plasticity and therapeutic resistance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma"

Biography: Dr. Sears is a professor at OHSU in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics and holds the Krista L. Lake Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Sears is Co-Director of the OHSU Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care and a senior member in the Knight Cancer Institute. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Reed College, her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Vanderbilt University and conducted her post-doctoral studies at Duke University prior to coming to OHSU in 2001. Dr. Sears has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation, as well as several other private foundations. She has received both research and business innovation awards in the areas of cancer biology, therapeutics, and technology advancement. Dr. Sears’ research expertise is in systems biology of cancer and includes cellular signaling pathways that control tumor cell phenotype and tumor stromal cross talk. Mechanistically, she focuses on the role of post-translational regulation of the MYC oncoprotein in the regulation of cell phenotypes and therapeutic resistance. She is working on novel therapeutic strategies that are being tested in innovative patient-derived models cancer.

Faculty Host: Ernest Martinez; ernest.martinez@ucr.edu