2016 AACR Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology Workshop

Jennifer Kwan is a PGY2 Radiation Oncology Resident at UT-DRO. She was recently selected as 1 of 50 trainees to attend the AACR Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology Workshop. Below, she shares a summary of this opportunity.

The 2016 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology Workshop took place during July 24-31, 2016. This year was the 25th anniversary of this workshop. It was organized by Dr. Levi Garraway (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, DFCI), Dr. Charles Sawyers (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Dr. Mark Geraci (Indiana University), and Dr. Jean Tang (Stanford) and supported by the National Cancer Institute.

I had the opportunity to join 49 other oncology residents, fellows, and early career physician-scientists from across the globe in Snowmass, Colorado to learn from world experts about key areas in molecular biology and translational cancer research. The keynote speaker was Dr. William Kaelin Jr. (DFCI), who spoke on cancer target discovery. Other notable lectures included Dr. Carl June’s (University of Pennsylvania) presentation on engineering T cells for cancer therapy and Dr. Charles Sawyers presentation on drug resistance mechanisms in prostate cancer. The program also consisted of hands-on laboratories in next-generation sequencing, CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing, proteomics, and bioinformatics as well as opportunities for mentoring, career development, and grant writing.

Overall, learning from this fantastic group of physician-scientists and meeting fellow colleagues in training was a unique educational experience. I would highly recommend it to all oncology trainees! A special thank you to Dr. Fei-Fei Liu for her mentorship and encouragement in partaking in this opportunity and further developing my interests in a future career as a clinician-scientist.