Clinical Research Forum - 180208

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. Majority of young women with BRCA1 mutations have a so-called triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) with an aggressive phenotype. Currently there is no targeted therapy for TNBC and HGSOC. Work ongoing in t

he lab is geared towards understanding the molecular mechanism of BRCA1 dysfunction in these cancers. We are studying the biological functions of BRCA1 and its disease associated mutant proteins so as to identify the dri

ver mutations that lead to these aggressive cancers. This work as led to the discovery of a BRCA1 function based assay Patent 8,372,580 the only one in the world that can stratify risk for TNBC and HGSOC development and can be used to develop drugs for targeted therapy of these cancers which currently have no targeted treatments available.

Biography

Dr. Veena N. Rao is Professor and Co-Director of the Cancer Biology Program in the Department of OB/GYN at Morehouse School of Medicine. She was awarded the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar Award from the Governor of Georgia for outstanding cancer research. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Osmania University, India and some of the work was done at Max Planck Institute in Germany, University of Edinburgh, Scotland and MIT, Boston. Her postdoctoral work was from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University School of Medicine. She was a Fogarty International Fellow at National Cancer Institute where she and Dr. Reddy identified the ERG gene (Science 1987) which is involved in prostate cancers. Dr. Rao has a long career beginning at Temple University and then at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia as an Assistant Professor where her group cloned the ELK-1 gene (Science 1989, Nature 1991). Recently Elk-1 was found to play a role in neurodegeneration and schizophrenia. She then moved to Thomas Jefferson University as Associate Professor where she identified and cloned the BRCA1 isoforms. Dr. Rao has been working in the BRCA1 field since the cloning of the gene in 1994 and has spearheaded numerous breakthroughs in breast and ovarian cancer research. She then moved as Professor and Co-Director of the Division of Cancer Genetics at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Philadelphia and then became Professor and Co-Director of the Division of Cancer Genetics at Drexel University. This led her to be recruited as the State of Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar at Morehouse School of Medicine to initiate a Cancer Biology program at Grady Cancer Center, Grady Memorial Hospital which is a satellite site of Morehouse School of Medicine. She was the research advisor for the first MD, PhD student at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Rao has won numerous awards including outstanding mentor award, MSCR class of 2017. Her work has recently led to discovering a BRCA1 function-based assay, Patent 8,372,580 the only one in the world that can stratify risk for Triple Negative Breast Cancer development and to develop drugs for targeted therapy of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, a disease which currently has no targeted treatments available.

Light refreshments and beverages will be provided.