World's Leading Cancer Experts to Explore Advances in Personalized Cancer Medicine at Barcelona Meeting

Several dozen of the world’s leading experts in cancer treatments will meet in Barcelona for a three-day symposium to explore new advances in personalized medicine. The landmark event, Towards Personalized Cancer Medicine, May 19-21, 2010, is being coordinated by the New York Academy of Sciences, which has a mission to advance science through international alliances in cutting-edge research areas. The symposium agenda has been organized by a scientific organizing committe of world-renowned cancer clinicians and researchers—Drs. Josep Baselga, Alison Farrell, Sephen Friend, Joan Massagué, Manuel Perucho, Brian Pollok. Nobel Laureate J. Michael Bishop will give a keynote address, and presentations will be made by an impressive roster of 33 cancer researchers and clinicians from academia and industry.

"It is an honor to return to Barcelona to provide a forum for open dialogue among basic and clinical scientists working in areas of cancer research and oncology leading to a personalized treatment of malignant tumors” said Dr. Marta Murcia, Program Manager for Life Sciences at the New York Academy of Sciences. “In this era, no longer can cancer be conceived as one disease only. Rather, cancer is seen now as hundreds or even thousands of conditions with individualized origins and signatures. We expect the discussions originating from this symposium, their dissemination through enduring materials, and the collaborations emerging from this forum to generate comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approaches to translating current knowledge of the molecular signatures of cancer into personalized therapies within the clinical care setting.”

During the three-day symposium, senior and young scientists, clinicians, and physicians working in the fields of genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics, genetics, epigenetics, cell biology, imaging, drug development, and clinical therapy will address recent advances, challenges, and future steps in research and clinical practice leading to an individualized understanding of cancer disease and its translation into personalized clinical care. In this context, the meeting will address biology of cancer, predisposition, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.

Continuing the groundbreaking alliance established in Barcelona by the New York Academy of Sciences in November 2008, (www.nyas.org/valconf), Towards Personalized Cancer Medicine is co-hosted by Talència (previously known as FCRI) and Fundació la Caixa. The program is supported by The Mushett Family Foundation, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Fundación Ramón Areces, Amgen, S.A., Life Technologies, MedImmune, Life Biosystems AG, Cepheid, Millennium, Novartis, Ferrer Incode, Ikerchem S.L, Laboratorio de Análisis Dr. Echevarne, Agilent Technologies Spain S.L., Biocat—The BioRegion of Catalonia, Bayer, Affymetrix, Pangaea S.A., Instituto Universitario Dexeus, and Cell Signaling Technology, Inc. This activity is also funded by grants from Imclone, and the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

For more information or to register for the symposium, please go to the conference website at www.nyas.org/personalmed. Media coverage of this conference is encouraged. To register, please contact Nancy Wong at nwong@nyas.org, (212) 298-8609, or Adrienne Burke at aburke@nyas.org, (212) 298-8655.

The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization committed to advancing science, technology, and society worldwide since 1817. With close to 24,000 members in 140 countries, NYAS is creating a global community of science for the benefit of humanity. NYAS' core mission is to advance scientific knowledge, positively impact the major global challenges of society with science-based solutions, and increase the number of scientifically informed individuals in society at large.