Dr Ryan Morin will give a presentation titled:
“Towards improved methods for identifying relevant mutations in cancer genomics data”
Abstract:
Owing to large international efforts, massive amounts of next-generation sequence (NGS) data deriving from individual primary tumour specimens are becoming available to the research community. The newfound knowledge resulting from meta-analysis of these large data sets continues to spur the development of novel therapeutics and the possibility of repositioning available therapies for off-label applications. As a result, we are quickly approaching an era of personalized medicine in cancer whereby therapeutics may be optimally selected based on each tumour’s unique genetics. To realize this goal, the scientific and medical communities require access to sufficiently sensitive algorithms for identifying somatic mutations and genes relevant to disease such that all potentially “actionable” mutations can be identified in individual tumours, a problem that is currently hindered by tumour heterogeneity and noise inherent in NGS data. Further, such tools must be readily (and freely) available in a framework that enables application by non-specialized individuals including clinicians. This talk will discuss some current state-of-the-art methods for mutation detection and annotation and improvements for increasing detection sensitivity and “driver” mutation identification. An example application of these methods to a common cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma) will be presented. Also, ongoing efforts to incorporate tools and pipelines for cloud-ready “plug and play” cancer genome analysis will be discussed.
Bio:
Dr. Morin trained locally at the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre with Dr. Marco Marra as a mentor. He initially worked there as a DNA sequence finisher and computational biologist before entering the CIHR Bioinformatics Training Program in 2005. His MSc thesis involved some of the first successful applications of Illumina massively parallel sequencing technology. He subsequently entered the PhD program and developed a pipeline for identifying somatic point mutations and fusion transcripts from RNA-seq data. His analysis of human lymphoid cancers uncovered numerous new cancer genes including the EZH2 oncogene, which is now being pursued as a therapeutic target in lymphoma. Overall, his work has revealed a previously unappreciated role of chromatin remodeling/histone modifying genes in human cancer. Dr. Morin joined SFU as a faculty member in the summer of 2012 and also holds a Scientist appointment in the Genome Sciences Centre.
Dr. Ryan Morin’s talk will be preceded by a 10 min introductory talk by Artem Babaian, Graduate student from Dr. Dixie Mager’s Lab at the Terry Fox Laboratory.
Title: Endogenous retroviruses and the dark regulatory network
The other speakers for this year are as follow (save the dates!):
Nov 14th, 2013 – Ryan Morin, Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University
Dec13th, 2013 – Social event
Feb 6th, 2014 – Gene Myers, Director, MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
March 13th, 2014 – Michel Dumontier, Associate Professor, Sandford University
April 10th, 2014 – Dana Pe’er, Associate Professor, Columbia University
May 1st, 2014 (TBD) – Martin Kryzywinski, Scientist, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
Seminar is followed by complementary pizza, refreshments and great networking.
For updates on seminar topics and abstracts, please check out our website at http://vanbug.org.
Please note:
Trainees are invited to meet with the VanBUG speaker for open discussion
of both science and career paths. This takes place 4:30-5:30pm in either
the Boardroom or Lunchroom on the ground floor of the BCCRC
Location:
675 West 10th Avenue
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Family Theatre
BC Cancer Agency
Date/Time:
November 14, 2013
Start Time: 6:00 PM
End Time: 7:30 PM (followed by pizza and drinks)
Contact Name:
William Hsiao
dev@vanbug.org
http://vanbug.org
Regards,
William Hsiao
on behalf of VanBUG Organization Team:
Cedric Chauve (Department of Mathematics, SFU)
Bhavjinder Dhillon (Brinkman Lab, SFU)
Rodrigo Goya (Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre & Centre for High-Throughput Biology, UBC)
William Hsiao (BCCDC Public Health Microbiology & Reference Laboratory)
Kieran O’Neill (BC Cancer Agency)
Raunak Shrestha (Collin’s Lab, Vancouver Prostate Centre)
Shing Hei Zhan (Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre)
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