The 2nd International Conference on Drug Discovery & Therapy: Dubai, February 1 - 4, 2010


The field of translational research has been modeled most effectively in the oncology setting, where an unprecented number of new agents are being clinically tested and approved for use against specific malignancies. Impetus for this renaissance has come from the laboratory. Biochemistry and molecular biology have driven advances in understanding the molecular changes that are seen in cancer and have enabled the ability to pharmacologically target these changes. Drug targets in cancer encompass almost every aspect of cellular function, including cell surface expression of molecules, intracellular signaling events, protein degradation and even gene expression. An advantage of this generation of drugs is the fact that clinical trials may take into account whether the appropriate molecular target has been hit, thereby arming the next phase of drug development in improving the drug itself or choosing a better target. The most dramatic example of the success of these strategies has been in therapies for chronic myelogenous leukemia, a blood cancer which aberrantly expresses the BCR/ABL oncogene. Therapies inhibiting BCR/ABL action have changed the management and the clinical course of this disease. More importantly, the strategies utilized to develop these therapies have been adopted by translational researchers working to cure human disease inclusive of, but not limited to cancer.

Joya Chandra
Children’s Cancer Hospital at M.D. Anderson
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, Texas, U.S.A





 

Dr. Joya Chandra earned her doctorate in cancer biology and immunology at the University of Texas Health Science Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1998. She subsequently conducted two postdoctoral fellowships. The first was at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where she trained with Professor Sten Orrenius and studied the biochemistry of programmed cell death and oxidative stress. Her second fellowship was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota under the direction of Scott Kaufmann, M.D., Ph.D. where she conducted translational research in the field of leukemia therapeutics. In 2002 she returned to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas as an Assistant Professor on the tenure track within the Children’s Cancer Hospital. She is currently an Associate Professor with Tenure, and has authored over 40 publications in the field of translational biomedical research. Her NIH funded laboratory conducts preclinical studies on novel agents in pediatric cancer model systems with an emphasis on leukemia and brain tumors. She is also conducting translational research on how limiting oxidative stress by specific currently used cancer drugs can promote fewer long term toxicities in pediatric cancer survivors.

Selected Awards and Honors: AACR-AFLAC Young Investigator Award; AACR-AFLAC Scholar-in-Training Award; NIH NRSA Individual (F32) Training Grant; Children's Oncology Group Young Investigator Award; Leukemia SPORE Career Development Award; Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club Award; Faculty Educator of the Month, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

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