Conference Description
Intracellular – genetically as well as epigenetically induced – molecular changes and cell signaling are the basis of cancer as a deadly malady. The hallmarks of cancer show that tumor heterogeneity, cellular interactions and feedback by the microenvironment are correspondingly quintessential to grasp cancer progression. Despite the wide variety of genetic and molecular information available to characterize a patient’s tumor, a precise individual prediction of cancer progression is only possible to a limited extent. This suggests that vital data about tumor progression are missing such as the physical and mechanical properties of cells and surrounding tissue. Considering the complexity of cancer as a systemic disease recently high expectations have been raised that an interdisciplinary approach by combining biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, big data, and physics with biomedicine will lead to convergent oncology. Emergent phenomena which are not directly triggered by a specific molecule can be only understood by a convergent approach. The meeting will focus on these multidisciplinary approaches and their success in understanding fundamental cancer progression as well as in developing potential translational perspectives.
The topics, speakers, and discussion leaders for the conference sessions are displayed below. The conference chair is currently developing their detailed program, which will include the complete meeting schedule, as well as the talk titles for all speakers. The detailed program will be available by July 14, 2021. Please check back for updates.
3D Cell Motion in Dense Environments: The Prerequisite for a Systemic Disease
Discussion Leaders
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Dennis Discher (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Speakers
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Benjamin Geiger (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
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Claudia Fischbach (Cornell University, USA)
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Viola Vogel (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Regulation of Cancer Associated Cells
Discussion Leaders
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Rong Fang (Yale University, USA)
Speakers
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Carole Parent (University of Michigan, USA)
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Sui Huang (Institute of Systems Biology, USA)
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T.S. Karin Eisinger (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Epithelial versus Mesenchymal
Discussion Leaders
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Peter Friedl (Radboud University, The Netherlands)
Speakers
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Xavier Trepat (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Spain)
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Ben Favry (University of Erlangen, Germany)
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Jeffrey Fredberg (Harvard University, USA)
Blood and Lymphatic Vasculature
Discussion Leaders
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Jochen Guck (Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Germany)
Speakers
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Melody Swartz (University of Chicago, USA)
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David Cheresh (University of California, San Diego, USA)
Collective Cell Migration
Discussion Leaders
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Stephanie Fraley (University of California, San Diego, USA)
Speakers
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Mary Lisa Manning (Syracuse University, USA)
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Pascal Silberzan (Institut Curie, France)
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Greg Longmore (Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, USA)
Roadmap to Metastasis
Discussion Leaders
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Herbert Levine (Rice University, USA)
Speakers
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Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic (Columbia University, USA)
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Michael Hoeckel (University of Leipzig, Germany)
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Kandice Tanner (National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA)
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Oskar Hallatschek (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Predictive Diagnostics Based on Physics
Discussion Leaders
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Ben Favry (University of Erlangen, Germany)
Speakers
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Axel Niendorf (Medical School Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany)
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Ingolf Sack (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany)
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Kostas Konstantopoulos (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Organoid and Tissue Mechanics
Discussion Leaders
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Rebecca Wells (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Speakers
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Denis Wirtz (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
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Max Bi Dapeng (Northeastern University, USA)
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Paul Janmey (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Cancer Dynamics Theory and Computation
Discussion Leaders
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Robert Gatenby (Moffitt Cancer Center, USA)
Speakers
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Niko Beerenwinkel (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
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Carlo Maley (University of California, San Francisco, USA)
