Calendar

Nov
17
Tue
2020
PHIND Seminar - Ami Bhatt, M.D., Ph.D. & Gavin Sherlock, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar – Ami Bhatt, M.D., Ph.D. & Gavin Sherlock, Ph.D.
Nov 17 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar - Ami Bhatt, M.D., Ph.D. & Gavin Sherlock, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

PHIND Seminar Series: Identifying Microbiome Markers of Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

 

Ami Bhatt, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and of Genetics
Stanford University

 

Gavin Sherlock, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Genetics
Stanford University

 

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP: https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016040837299/WN_iBOM7R4XQjOPSb20rkUxbw

 

Location: Zoom Webinar
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/99730716280
Webinar ID: 997 3071 6280
Dial: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Password: 767148

 

ABOUT AMI BHATT
In perpetual awe of how ‘simple’ microbial organisms can perturb complex, multicellular eukaryotic organisms, Ami Bhatt has chosen to dedicate her research program to inspecting, characterizing and dissecting the microbe-human interface. Nowhere is the interaction between hosts and microbes more potentially impactful than in immunocompromised hosts and global settings where infectious and environmental exposures result in drastic and sometimes fatal health consequences.

Ami’s group identifies problems and questions that arise in the course of routine clinical care. Often in collaboration with investigators at Stanford and beyond, the group applies modern genetic, molecular and computational techniques to seek answers to these questions, better understand host-microbe interactions and decipher how perturbation of these interactions may result in human disease phenotypes.

 

GAVIN SHERLOCK’S RESEARCH INTERESTS
Adaptive Evolution and the Fitness Landscape: When yeast are evolved under various selective pressures in a chemostat, mutations that arise and provide an adaptive advantage will expand within the population. We have pioneered the use of high throughput sequencing to determine the identity of such mutations, as well as to understand the dynamics of the mutations within the populations, and the interactions between the mutations (such as epistasis). Further, we have developed a DNA barcode based lineage tracking system to determine the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) for newly arising beneficial mutations. We have also characterized what we call the genotype-fitness map for beneficial mutations, and have investigated why beneficial mutations provide a positive fitness effect. We are also interested in how beneficial mutations trade-off for different traits, and how those trade-offs constrain adaptive evolution.

 

Hosted by: Garry Gold, M.D.
Sponsored by the PHIND Center and the Department of Radiology

Dec
1
Tue
2020
PHIND Seminar - Ahmed Metwally, Ph.D. & Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, M.S. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar – Ahmed Metwally, Ph.D. & Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, M.S.
Dec 1 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar - Ahmed Metwally, Ph.D. & Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, M.S. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

PHIND Seminar Series: Topics Below

Ahmed Metwally, PhD
“Pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19 via wearables biosensors”
Postdoctoral Scholar – Michael Snyder, PhD Lab
Department of Genetics
Stanford University

 

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, MS
“Continuous remote cardiorespiratory and health monitoring using the Hexoskin biometric shirt”
Co-founder and CEO
Hexoskin

 

Location: Zoom Webinar
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/98925964231
Dial: +1 650 724 9799 or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 989 2596 4231
Passcode: 298382

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP: https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bruT-pvvQUePuBLqm2SLkQ

 

Ahmed Metwally Abstract
Wearable devices digitally measuring vital signs have been used for monitoring health and illness onset and have a high potential for real-time monitoring and disease detection. As such, they are potentially useful during public health crises, such as the current COVID-19 global pandemic. In my talk, I’ll discuss how wearables biosensors can be used as a tool to early detect COVID19 onset using physiological and activity data. By using retrospective smartwatch data, we showed that 63% of the COVID-19 cases could be detected before symptom onset in real-time via the occurrence of extreme elevations in resting heart rate relative to the individual baseline. Our findings suggest that consumer wearables may be used for the large-scale real-time detection of respiratory infections, often pre-symptomatically, and provide an approach for managing epidemics using digital tracking and health monitoring.

 

About Ahmed Metwally
Ahmed Metwally is a postdoctoral scholar in the Snyder lab at Stanford University. Ahmed received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics/Bioengineering and MS in Computer Science (focused on Deep Learning), both from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2018. He currently works on developing novel machine learning methods for longitudinal multimodal biomedical data fusion (omics and wearable biosensors data) to early detect cardiometabolic diseases and personalize their treatments. Ahmed has received numerous awards, such as NIH Predoctoral Translational Scientist fellowship, ISMB’20 best talk award, Stanford COVID-19 RISE Grant, second-place award at Stanford Health++ Hackathon, and many travel awards NSF, IEEE, ISCB, and UIUC for various educational and scholarly activities.

 

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier Abstract
The Hexoskin Connected Health platform will be discussed as an example of a biometric shirt validated for use in telehealth and clinical research.  Hexoskin has the only clinically validated biometric garment which provides continuous monitoring of numerous and unique physiological parameters.  Hexoskin is an enabling technology for telehealth use cases, such as remote patient monitoring, rehab, and detect the onset of illness.  Hexoskin offers a unique set of high-resolution biometric data that can continuously monitor activity, sleep, cardiac and respiratory data.  Projects in fields such as cardiology, respiratory, behavioral and physiological psychology, biofeedback research, sleep research, and health will be described.  The Hexoskin Connected Health Platform provides researchers with accessible solutions such as the Hexoskin Dashboards, Open API, and Apps to manage, visualize, annotate, analyze, and export raw & processed health data. Data extraction tools allow access to the raw data with time series for machine learning and artificial intelligence projects.

 

About Pierre-Alexandre Fournier
Pierre-Alexandre Fournier is co-founder and CEO of Hexoskin, a Montreal-based company focused on clinical-grade wearable sensors and AI software for health and clinical research. Hexoskin was founded in 2006 and in 2013 released the first iPhone compatible smart clothing for health monitoring, winning several international awards. In 2018 Hexoskin launched a remote health monitoring system for astronauts on the International Space Station. Hexoskin recently reached the milestone of 100 scientific publications. Pierre-Alexandre earned his MASc and his BEng in Electrical Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and became a lecturer there teaching machine learning.  He completed the Harvard Business School HBX Core program with high honors.  Pierre-Alexandre is also an advocate for transparency in healthcare, patient empowerment, and healthcare innovation through design.

 

Hosted by: Angela McIntyre, Executive Director, eWEAR Initiative
Sponsored by: PHIND Center, Department of Radiology, eWEAR Initiative

Jan
19
Tue
2021
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Thomas Kislinger, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series – Thomas Kislinger, Ph.D.
Jan 19 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Thomas Kislinger, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

CEDSS: Systematic identification of fluid-based biomarkers for ovarian and prostate cancer

 

Thomas Kislinger, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair
Department of Medical Biophysics
University of Toronto

Senior Scientist
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

 

Zoom Webinar Details 
Meeting URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/94878578384
Dial: +1 650 724 9799 or +1 833 302 1536
Webinar ID: 948 7857 8384
Passcode: 692692
Register Here

 

ABOUT

Thomas Kislinger received his MSc in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Munich, Germany (1998). He completed his PhD in 2001, investigating the role of Advanced Glycation Endproducts in diabetic vascular complications at the University of Erlangen, Germany and Columbia University, New York. Between 2002 and 2006 he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. In 2006 he joined the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre as an independent investigator. Dr. Kislinger holds positions as Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and as Professor and Chair at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Biophysics. The Kislinger lab applies proteomics technologies to translational and basic cancer biology. This includes the development of novel proteomics methodologies, identification of liquid biopsy signatures and the molecular identification of novel cell surface markers.

 

Hosted by: Utkan Demirci, Ph.D.
Spon
sored by: The Canary Center & the Department of Radiology 
Stanford University – School of Medicine

Feb
16
Tue
2021
PHIND Seminar - Thalia Robakis, M.D., Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar – Thalia Robakis, M.D., Ph.D.
Feb 16 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar - Thalia Robakis, M.D., Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

PHIND Seminar Series: Maternal Trauma History, Attachment Style, and Depression Are Associated with Broad DNA Methylation Signatures in Infants

Thalia Robakis, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Mount Sinai School of Medicine

 

Location: Zoom
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/95483174518
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 954 8317 4518
Passcode: 179384
11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

 

ABSTRACT

Background: The early environment provides many cues to young organisms that guide their development as they mature.  Maternal personality and behavior are an important aspect of the environment of the developing human infant.  The molecular mechanisms by which these influences are exerted are not well understood.  We attempted to identify whether maternal traits could be associated with alterations in DNA methylation patterns in infants.

Methods: 32 women oversampled for history of depression were recruited in pregnancy and provided information on depressive symptoms, attachment style, and history of early life adversity.  Buccal cell DNA was obtained from their infants at six months of age for a large-scale analysis of methylation patterns across 5×106 individual CpG dinucleotides, using clustering-based criteria for significance to control for multiple comparisons.  Separately, associations between maternal depression, attachment style, and history of adversity and psychobehavioral outcomes in preschool-age children were examined.

Results: Tens of thousands of individual infant CpGs were alternatively methylated in association with each of the three studied maternal traits.  Genes implicated in cell-cell communication, developmental patterning, growth, immune function/inflammatory response, and neurotransmission were identified. The result sets were highly coextensive among the three maternal traits, but areas of divergence exhibited intriguing parallels with behavioral outcomes.

Conclusions: Maternal personality traits are an important aspect of the infant environment that shapes offspring development in many ways.  Infant genes that are epigenetically modified in reponse to maternal traits are potential candidate mediators for these effects.  We have identified a large number of such genes and demonstrated parallels to clinically measurable outcomes in children.

 

ABOUT
Dr. Robakis is a psychiatrist with clinical and research interests in perinatal mood disorders and in the contribution of early life experiences to adult mental health and illness.  She completed her M.D. as well as a Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology at Columbia University’s Medical Scientist Training Program, residency training in psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a research fellowship in perinatal mood disorders also at Stanford. She remained on the clinical faculty at Stanford until 2019, when she accepted a position at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Assistant Director of the Women’s Mental Health Program.

Dr. Robakis’ research interests include the effects of early life stress and disordered attachment on risk for psychiatric illness in the perinatal period, on alterations in metabolism and cognition, and on psychobehavioral development in offspring.  She is particularly interested in using epigenetic marks to help identify the biological pathways through which early life experiences exert their effects on outcomes in adulthood and intergenerationally.

 

Hosted by: Garry Gold, M.D.
Sponsored by the PHIND Center and the Department of Radiology

Mar
2
Tue
2021
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Melissa Wong, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series – Melissa Wong, Ph.D.
Mar 2 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Melissa Wong, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

CEDSS: Disseminated cell hybrids as biomarkers for cancer detection, prognosis and treatment response

Melissa Wong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Cell, Development and Cancer Biology
Program Co-Lead, Knight Cancer Institute
Oregon Health & Science University

 

Zoom Details
Meeting URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/98184098662
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Meeting ID: 981 8409 8662
Passcode: 084321

RSVP Here!

 

ABSTRACT

Metastatic progression defines the final stages of tumor evolution and underlies the majority of cancer-related deaths. The heterogeneity in disseminated tumor cell populations capable of seeding and growing in distant organ sites contributes to the development of treatment resistant disease.  We recently reported the identification of a novel tumor-derived cell population, circulating hybrid cells (CHCs), harboring attributes from both macrophages and neoplastic cells, including functional characteristics important to metastatic spread. These disseminated hybrids outnumber conventionally defined circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer patients. It is unknown if CHCs represent a generalized cancer mechanism for cell dissemination, or if this population is relevant to the metastatic cascade. We detect CHCs in the peripheral blood of patients with cancer in myriad disease sites encompassing epithelial and non-epithelial malignancies. Further, we demonstrate that in vivo-derived hybrid cells harbor tumor-initiating capacity in murine cancer models and that CHCs from human breast cancer patients express stem cell antigens, features consistent with the ability to seed and grow at metastatic sites. We reveal heterogeneity of CHC phenotypes reflect key tumor features, including oncogenic mutations and functional protein expression. Importantly, this novel population of disseminated neoplastic cells opens a new area in cancer biology and renewed opportunity for battling metastatic disease.

 

ABOUT

The research focus of the Wong laboratory revolves around understanding the regulatory mechanisms that control epithelial stem cell homeostasis and their expansion in developmental, homeostasis and disease contexts, including cancer. I have substantial training and experience in intestinal stem cell investigation leveraging in vivo and ex vivo modeling, as well as in myriad cutting edge technologies (i.e. cyCIF, scRNA-seq). My publication record spans my post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Jeffrey Gordon’s laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine, to studies in my own laboratory at Oregon Health & Science University. Our research impacts the understanding of regulatory mechanisms that govern cell state in the context of the evolving tissue microenvironment and changing cell signaling landscape, in development and disease.

 

Our studies in stem cell regulation led to the intriguing finding that stem cells can fuse with tissue macrophages in the context of injury repair and may impact tissue regeneration. We have extended these findings to the cancer setting, where cancer-macrophage fusions are detectible in primary and metastatic tumors, and my group recently identified and characterized these cells as a novel circulating tumor cell population. Importantly, our studies in cell culture, in mice and humans provide an indepth evaluation of hybrid cells to set the foundation for continued investigations into their biology, impact on disease progression or tissue regeneration, and use as a biomarker for disease burden. Importantly, we coined the term, circulating hybrid cell (CHC) for this novel population and reported they exist at higher levels than conventionally defined circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. This work was published in 2018 and highlighted by Science Magazine as one of the top ten publications in the cancer field in the science family journals. The science proposed in this U01 application leverage hybrid cell biology to assess treatment response and resistance in breast cancer patients undergoing targeted therapy. Our proposal leverages active collaborations with Dr. Young Hwan Young’s group to synergize biology with computation, as well as a number of other valuable collaborators to ensure success of the proposed, cutting-edge science.

 

Hosted by: Utkan Demirci, Ph.D.
Spon
sored by: The Canary Center & the Department of Radiology 
Stanford University – School of Medicine

Apr
1
Thu
2021
SMMR Panel Discussion: Mixed Reality for Surgical Guidance @ Zoom
SMMR Panel Discussion: Mixed Reality for Surgical Guidance
Apr 1 @ 9:00 am – 10:30 am Zoom
SMMR Panel Discussion: Mixed Reality for Surgical Guidance @ Zoom

Mixed Reality for Surgical Guidance will take place on Thursday, April 1st from 9:00 – 10:30 am PDT.

The event will start with a one-hour panel discussion featuring Dr. Bruce Daniel of Stanford Radiology and the Stanford IMMERS Lab; Christoffer Hamilton of Brainlab, a surgical software and hardware leader in Germany; and Dr. Thomas Grégory of Orthopedic Surgery at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord.

This panel will be moderated by Dr. Christoph Leuze of Stanford University and the Stanford Medical Mixed Reality (SMMR) program.

Immediately following the panel discussion, you are also invited to a 30-minute interactive session with the panelists where questions and ideas can be explored in real time.

Register here: https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqf-GrqToiHNKL4D-5haRLowQylIwMEAve

Apr
20
Tue
2021
PHIND Seminar - Manuel Garcia-Toca, M.D. & Oliver O. Aalami, M.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar – Manuel Garcia-Toca, M.D. & Oliver O. Aalami, M.D.
Apr 20 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar - Manuel Garcia-Toca, M.D. & Oliver O. Aalami, M.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

PHIND Seminar Series: Impact of the Veterans Affairs National Abdominal Aortic Screening Program

Manuel Garcia-Toca, M.D.
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Chief, Division of  Vascular Surgery
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC)

 

Oliver O. Aalami, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery, Vascular Surgery
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital

 

Location: Zoom
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/98417624095
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 984 1762 4095
Passcode: 111283

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

 

ABSTRACT

Background: The U.S. Federal Government enacted the Screen for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently Act in January 2007. Simultaneously, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implemented a more inclusive AAA screening policy for veteran beneficiaries shortly afterwards.

 

Our study aimed to evaluate the impact of the VA program on AAA detection rate and all-cause mortality compared to a cohort of patients whose aneurysms were identified by other abdominal imaging.

 

Methods: We identified veterans with an AAA screening study using the two existing Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes (G0389 and 76706).  In the comparison group, eligible abdominal imaging studies included ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) queried according to CPT codes between 2001 and 2018.

 

We used a difference-in-differences regression model to evaluate the change in aneurysm detection rate and all-cause mortality five years before and eleven years after the VA implemented the screening policy in 2007.

 

We calculated survival estimates after AAA screening or non-screening imaging of patients with or without AAA diagnosis and used multivariate Cox regression model to evaluate mortality in patients with a positive AAA diagnosis adjusting for patient characteristics and comorbidities.

 

Results: We identified 3.9 million veterans with abdominal imaging, a total of 303,664 of whom were coded has having an AAA US screening between 2007 and 2018. An AAA diagnosis was made in 4.84% of the screening group vs. 1.3% in the non-screening imaging group P<0.001, yet more aneurysms were found with general imaging studies (50,730 vs.15,449) (Fig 1).

 

On Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, patients with an AAA diagnosis had higher overall mortality than patients who screened normal; patients with aneurysms found with non-screening imaging had the highest mortality, log-rank P<0.001 (Fig 2).

 

The difference in differences regression analysis, showed that the absolute AAA detection rate was 1.55% higher (95% CI 1.2- 1.8), and the mortality was 13.89 % lower (95% CI 10.18 %-16.66 %) after the introduction of the screening program in 2007.

 

Multivariate Cox regression analysis in patients with AAA diagnosis (65-74-year-old) demonstrated a significantly lower 5-year mortality [HR 0.45 (95% CI 0.43-0.48)] for patients in the US Screening group P<0.001.

 

Conclusions: In a nationwide analysis of VA patients, implementation of AAA screening was associated with improved survival and a higher rate of AAA diagnosis. These findings provide further support for this program’s continuation versus defaulting to incidental recognition following other abdominal imaging.

 

ABOUT MANUEL GARCIA-TOCA
Dr. Garcia-Toca earned his medical degree at the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico 1999. He has a master’s degree in Health Policy from Stanford University.

 

He received his general surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brown University in 2008. He then completed a Vascular Surgery fellowship at Northwestern University in 2010. Dr. Garcia-Toca is board certified in both surgery and vascular surgery.

 

Dr. Garcia-Toca joined Stanford Vascular Surgery in 2015. He is currently Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Garcia-Toca had previously served as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Brown University.  Dr. Garcia Toca is a Staff Surgeon at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

 

His research interests include new therapeutic strategies and outcomes for the management of vascular trauma, cerebrovascular diseases, dialysis access, aortic dissection and aneurysms.

 

ABOUT OLIVER O. AALAMI
Dr. Aalami is a Clinical Associate Professor of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery at Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA and serves as the Lead Director of Stanford’s Biodesign for Digital Health. He is the course director for Biodesign for Digital Health,  Building for Digital Health and co-founder of the open source project,  CardinalKit, developed to support sensor-based mobile research projects.  His primary research focuses on clinically validating the sensors in smartphones and smartwatches in patients with cardiovascular disease to further precision health implementation.

 

Hosted by: Garry Gold, M.D.
Sponsored by the PHIND Center and the Department of Radiology

Apr
30
Fri
2021
Racial Equity Challenge: Race in society @ Zoom
Racial Equity Challenge: Race in society
Apr 30 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Zoom
Racial Equity Challenge: Race in society @ Zoom

Targeted violence continues against Black Americans, Asian Americans, and all people of color. The department of radiology diversity committee is running a racial equity challenge to raise awareness of systemic racism, implicit bias and related issues. Participants will be provided a list of resources on these topics such as articles, podcasts, videos, etc., from which they can choose, with the “challenge” of engaging with one to three media sources prior to our session (some videos are as short as a few minutes). Participants will meet in small-group breakout sessions to discuss what they’ve learned and share ideas.

Please reach out to Marta Flory, flory@stanford.edu with questions. For details about the session, including recommended resources and the Zoom link, please reach out to Meke Faaoso at mfaaoso@stanford.edu.

May
11
Tue
2021
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Michael Berger, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series – Michael Berger, Ph.D.
May 11 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
Cancer Early Detection Seminar Series - Michael Berger, Ph.D. @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

CEDSS: “Building a Scalable Clinical Genomics Program: How tumor, normal, and plasma DNA sequencing are informing cancer care, cancer risk, and cancer detection”

 

Michael Berger, Ph.D.

Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn Chair & Associate Director of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

 

Zoom Details
Meeting URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/92559505314
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Meeting ID: 925 5950 5314
Passcode: 418727

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

 

ABSTRACT
Tumor molecular profiling is a fundamental component of precision oncology, enabling the identification of oncogenomic mutations that can be targeted therapeutically. To accelerate enrollment to clinical trials of molecularly targeted agents and guide treatment selection, we have established a center-wide, prospective clinical sequencing program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center using a custom, paired tumor-blood normal sequencing assay (MSK-IMPACT), which we have used to profile more than 50,000 patients with solid tumors. Yet beyond just the characterization of tumor-specific alterations, the inclusion of blood DNA has readily enabled the identification of germline risk alleles and somatic mutations associated with clonal hematopoiesis. To complement this approach, we have also implemented a ‘liquid biopsy’ cfDNA panel (MSK-ACCESS) for cancer detection, surveillance, and treatment selection and monitoring. In my talk, I will describe the prevalence of somatic and germline genomic alterations in a real-world population, the clinical benefits of cfDNA assessment, and how clonal hematopoiesis can inform cancer risk and confound liquid biopsy approaches to cancer detection.

 

ABOUT
Michael Berger, PhD, holds the Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn Chair and is Associate Director of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a multidisciplinary initiative to promote precision oncology through genomic analysis to guide the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. He is also an Associate Attending Geneticist in the Department of Pathology with expertise in cancer genomics, computational biology, and high-throughput DNA sequencing technology. His laboratory is developing experimental and computational methods to characterize the genetic makeup of individual cancers and identify genomic biomarkers of drug response and resistance. As Scientific Director of Clinical NGS in the Molecular Diagnostics Service, he oversees the development and bioinformatics associated with clinical sequencing assays, and he helped lead the development and implementation of MSK-IMPACT, a comprehensive FDA-authorized tumor sequencing panel that been used to profile more than 60,000 tumors from advanced cancer patients at MSK. The resulting data have enabled the characterization of somatic and germline biomarkers across many cancer types and the identification of mutations associated with clonal hematopoiesis. Dr. Berger also led the development of a clinically validated plasma cell-free DNA assay, MSK-ACCESS, which his laboratory is using to explore tumor evolution, acquired drug resistance, and occult metastatic disease. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University.

 

Hosted by: Utkan Demirci, Ph.D.
Spon
sored by: The Canary Center & the Department of Radiology 
Stanford University – School of Medicine

May
18
Tue
2021
PHIND Seminar - Patricia A. Deverka, MD, MS, MBE & Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar – Patricia A. Deverka, MD, MS, MBE & Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD
May 18 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link
PHIND Seminar - Patricia A. Deverka, MD, MS, MBE & Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD @ Zoom - See Description for Zoom Link

PHIND Seminar Series: Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Tests – “Liquid Biopsy Tests” – Are Here – But Will Payers Provide Insurance Coverage?

 

Patricia A. Deverka, MD, MS, MBE
Executive Director
Deverka Consulting, LLC

 

Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD
Professor of Health Economics and Health Services Research
Founding Director, UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS)

 

Location: Zoom
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/99194110894
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 991 9411 0894
Passcode: 044958

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

 

ABSTRACT
The emergence of Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Tests (MCED) – “liquid biopsy screening tests” – has generated enormous interest because they could fundamentally shift how cancer screening is done. One company is already offering an MCED test for clinical use as a “lab developed test” (LDT) – and thus addressing the question of “who will pay” has become urgent. These tests offer potentially transformative screening and clinical benefits, but their characteristics present unique challenges to payer coverage decision-making and generate concerns about the potentially high cost of widespread adoption.

We will present our ongoing work on examining the unique challenges that MCED present for payer coverage decision-making, drawing on our extensive experience with coverage and reimbursement for new technologies. We will focus on identifying the evidence generation strategies that could be pursued now to inform payer decision-making so that coverage policies can be developed that are appropriate and equitable for this ground-breaking technology.

 

ABOUT PATRICIA A. DEVERKA
Dr. Deverka is the Executive Director at Deverka Consulting, LLC where she focuses on helping biotechnology companies and start-ups develop evidence to support payer coverage and clinical adoption of innovative technologies.  Her most recent projects have focused on breakthrough tests and drugs focused on population genomic screening, cancer, and ultra-rare disorders.  Prior to starting her consulting practice, Dr. Deverka has worked in the fields of health economics and outcomes research in both non-profit and for-profit settings as a researcher, educator, and department head. She has extensive experience with patient-centered outcomes research, drug and diagnostic reimbursement planning, cost- effectiveness analysis, and bioethical issues surrounding the use of new technologies. While working in academia and several non-profit firms, she has participated in numerous NIH-funded studies to evaluate policy barriers to clinical integration of new genomic technologies and has published extensively on strategies to promote evidence generation and data sharing. She is a member of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)’s Genomic Medicine Work Group and serves as a member of NHGRI’s Advisory Council. Deverka has a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health.  She also has a master’s degree in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a policy fellowship at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.

 

ABOUT KATHRYN A. PHILLIPS
Kathryn A. Phillips founded and leads the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS), which focuses on developing objective evidence on how to effectively, efficiently, and equitably implement precision/personalized medicine into health care. Kathryn has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles in major journals including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Health Affairs. She has had continuous funding from NIH as a PI for over 25 years and was recently awarded a 5-year NIH grant to examine payer coverage and economic value for emerging genomic technologies (cell-free DNA tests and tests based on polygenic risk scores). Kathryn serves on the editorial boards for Health Affairs, Value in Health, JAMA Internal Medicine, Genetics in Medicine; is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health; and has served on the governing Board of Directors for GenomeCanada and as an advisor to the FDA, CDC, and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She has also served as an advisor to many diagnostics, sequencing, and pharmaceutical companies. Kathryn is Chair of the Global Economics and Evaluation of Clinical Sequencing Working Group, and a member of an evidence review committee for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). 

 

 

Hosted by: Garry Gold, M.D.
Sponsored by the PHIND Center and the Department of Radiology