The 2016 Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research

The 2016 Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research

Population and Tumor Heterogeneity in Cancer Genome Science and Precision Oncology

The National Human Genome Research Institute's Division of Intramural Research will present the 12th Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at the Lipsett Amphitheater, Building 10 (Clinical Center), on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Bethesda campus.  John D. Carpten, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Translational Genomics and director of the Institute of Translational Genomics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, will deliver the lecture.

 

 

About Dr. Carpten

John D. Carpten, Ph.D. Photo Credit: Keck School of Medicine

Dr. Carpten has become renowned for his key discoveries and contributions in the fields of cancer genetics and genomics. He was a lead author on the first genome-wide scan for hereditary prostate cancer genes published in Science.

Dr. Carpten was also among the early pioneers in the area of health disparities research with the goal of understanding the role of biology in disparate incidence and mortality rates seen among underrepresented populations. Through his leadership, the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer Study (AAHPC) Network was conceived. This study has become a model for genetic linkage studies in underrepresented populations and led to the first genome wide scan for prostate cancer susceptibility genes in African Americans.

Dr. Carpten has also been a leader in cancer genome science and is among a small group of cancer geneticists with vast experience in both germline genetics and somatic tumor biology. This has included the application of high throughput genomic technologies such as microarray measurements of genotypes and somatic alterations, and Next Generation Sequencing technologies for genome interrogation.

Dr. Carpten has played leadership roles in multiple myeloma research, and in the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Genomics Initiative. Dr. Carpten has begun to apply next generation sequencing technologies for deep genomic profiling of tumors in a clinical setting. He and clinical partners performed a precision medicine study using whole genome and transcriptome sequencing on 14 metastatic triple negative breast cancers to identify therapeutically actionable events that were used for treatment recommendations. The resulting paper was the most cited article in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics in 2014.

Dr. Carpten received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University in 1998, joined the  NHGRI Division of Intramural Research (DIR) as a senior staff fellow with the Cancer Genomics Branch in 1994 and became an investigator in that branch in 2000. He is recognized as a thought leader in precision medicine, as shown by a number of papers describing the results of clinical cancer sequencing studies in cancer patients. 

For more about Dr. Carpten, see: John D. Carpten, Ph.D., USC Profiles 

About the Jeffrey M. Trent Lectureship in Cancer Research

Jeffrey M. Trent, Ph.D.

Jeffrey M. Trent, Ph.D., F.A.C.M.G, was the National Human Genome Research Institute's (NHGRI) founding scientific director, serving in this role for more than nine years. His leadership and vision were instrumental in establishing NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research as one of the premier research programs in the world devoted to genetics and genomics. In recognition of his significant contributions to the research environment at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NHGRI established the annual Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research in 2003. This lecture is given by a prominent cancer researcher who brings the kind of energy, creativity and enthusiasm to cancer research that Dr. Trent has exemplified throughout his career. 

This year, Dr. Trent will be the guest of honor at the 2016 Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research. 

Dr. Trent received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in genetics from the University of Arizona, Tucson. Prior to joining NHGRI, he was the Emanuel N. Maisel Professor of Oncology and Professor of Radiation Oncology and Human Genetics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also served as director of the Division of Cancer Biology, and director of basic sciences at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 1993, Dr. Trent came to NIH with Dr. Francis Collins to establish and direct its newly formed Division of Intramural Research. Following his departure from NHGRI, Dr. Trent became the founding president and research director of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix. 

Dr. Trent's research has provided important insights into the genetic basis of cancer. He is the author of more than 350 manuscripts in the scientific literature, numerous book chapters, invited reviews, and has given hundreds of invited lectures. He has received numerous honors and awards, and has sat on the editorial boards of a dozen scientific publications. He specializes in developing and integrating novel "omic" technologies, in support of clinical decision support in oncology patients. 

Dr. Trent continues to lead studies of the genetic basis of various complex diseases in humans, as well as leading TGen's canine hereditary cancer program.

For additional information:

Nora Miralieva
E-mail: nora.miralieva@nih.gov
(301) 443-4404

Last Updated: September 16, 2016