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Conway Fellows host prestigious EMBO conference in cancer proteomics

Conway Fellows Professors Liam Gallagher, Michael Dunn, Dolores Cahill, Stephen Pennington and William Watson along with collaborators in Sweden and the United Kingdom are hosting the EMBO Cancer Proteomics 2009 in UCD this week.

This flagship event in the EMBO conference series programme is the first in a series of three events to be held over the next six years on the theme of cancer proteomics. The other events will take place at the European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK in 2011 and at Lund University, Sweden in 2013.

Scientists are casting a translational framework by which proteomic (protein) investigations can advance the understanding of how cancer-related processes operate and ultimately inform treatment strategies.

Proteins confer functionality to cells. If scientists can quickly localise and quantify proteins within cells using high-throughput techniques, they may potentially identify protein subsets that can act as biomarkers of cancer development & progression. This is considered important for disease diagnosis, personalising treatment regimes and monitoring therapy.
 
Plenary speakers addressing the conference delegates include Dr. Ruedi Aebersold, Professor of Systems Biology at the Institute of Biotechnology, ETH-Zürich who will describe his efforts to detect protein biomarkers in blood plasma using a new, hypothesis driven, targeted quantitative proteomic strategy. In his research, Dr. Aebersold is focusing on a subset of proteins with attached sugars (glycoproteins), which add functionality. By comparing the glycoproteins in healthy tissue against those seen in tumours, he hopes to uncover potential biomarkers of disease.

Members of the public are invited to join conference delegates to discuss who owns and profits from biological collections, in the wake of the publication of a Government report into the creation of a national biobank. Professors Elaine Kay and David Smith from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland will lead an active discussion with respect to the establishment, governance, management, and use of human biobanks for research purposes.

It is clear that such resources provide an invaluable resource for the research community in respect to biomarker discovery and validation. However, issues such as properly informed consent from contributing patients/donors, ownership of biological materials and commercial exploitation of the resultant data derived from use of these materials need to be carefully considered.

Cancer Proteomics 2009; Mechanistic Insights, Technological Advances, and Molecular Medicine takes place in the O’Reilly Hall, University College Dublin from June 8th-11th 2009. Co-funded by Science Foundation Ireland, this designated tier 1 level conference brings the funding agency one step closer to its target of bringing five prestigious international conferences to Ireland as outlined in its strategy document covering this period, Powering the Smart Economy (2009-2013).