NEWS

Researchers to discuss cell cycle, cancer at Lineberger symposium

By AMY PHILBECK
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

CHAPEL HILL -- Scientists from around the world, including a Nobel Prize-winner from England and a Lasker Award-winner from Israel, will gather at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill March 18 and 19 to discuss how controlling the levels of proteins in cells by an unusual molecule named ubiquitin relates to cancer.

Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Tim Hunt and Lasker Award-winner Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, who both made important discoveries related to ubiquitin, will be among the featured lecturers at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s 27th Annual Scientific Symposium, "Ubiquitin and Cancer." Hunt will deliver the keynote address the morning of March 18.

"Ubiquitin plays a critical role in controlling the abundance and function of most, if not all, proteins in the cell," said Dr. Yue Xiong, symposium coordinator. "One example illustrating the importance of the ubiquitin pathway is the control of a key cell cycle protein known as cyclin, which was discovered by Dr. Hunt 20 years ago. Faulty overproduction or accumulation of cyclin proteins is a common event associated with the development of many different types of human cancer."

The symposium, free to the public, will be held at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. Pre-registration is recommended.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. March 18. Dr. H. Shelton Earp III, Lineberger center director, and Xiong will welcome participants and give introductory remarks at 8:45 a.m.

The first session, titled "Cell Cycle Control by Ubiquitin," is chaired by Dr. Ted Salmon, UNC professor of biology. The session begins at 9 a.m. with Hunt’s keynote address titled "On the Control of the ‘Events’ of the Cell Cycle."

The following scientists also will speak: Dr. Peter Jackson, Stanford University; Dr. Janice Fischer, University of Texas at Austin; and Xiong, Lineberger center.

Dr. Trevor Archer will chair the second session, "Ubiquitin in Cell Regulation and Disease," which will begin at 1:30 p.m. Archer is chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The speakers for the second session are Dr. Cam Patterson, Lineberger center; Dr. Rachel Klevit, University of Washington at Seattle; and Dr. Alan D’Andrea, Harvard Medical School.

The third session will begin March 19 at 8:30 a.m. "The Proteasome and Cancer Therapy" is chaired by Dr. Vytas Bankaitis, UNC professor and chair of cell biology. This session will include the following speakers: Dr. Daniel Finley, Harvard Medical School; Ciechanover, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel; Dr. Stephen Johnston, University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center; Dr. Margaret Read, Millennium Pharmaceuticals; and Dr. Robert Orlowski, Lineberger center.

Current symposium sponsors are the Lineberger center and the UNC School of Medicine departments of biochemistry, biology, dermatology, genetics, microbiology, radiation oncology and surgery.

Among the businesses and organizations offering additional support are Boehringer-Ingelheim, Eli Lilly-Sphinx Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of Research Triangle Park.

Lunch will be provided, for a cost of $10, on March 18. In addition, a reception will be held at 5 p.m. after the scientific sessions have been completed on that day. For more information, call Melissa Mack, symposium coordinator, at (919) 966-3036. Online registration and additional information are available at http://cancer.med.unc.edu/symposium2003/.

In addition to his Lineberger keynote address, Hunt will serve as the keynote speaker for the Chancellor’s Science Seminar Series, presented by the College of Arts and Sciences with funding from UNC’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies. That lecture, "What Is the Cell Cycle, and How Is It Controlled?", will be held 7 p.m. March 17 at Koury Auditorium, in Kenan-Flagler Business School’s McColl Building.

- 30 -

Lineberger center contact: Dianne G. Shaw, (919) 966-5905