War against Cancer: Developing Anticancer Agents Friendly to Normal Cells
By Prof Liang Chun

Date: 14 May 2015
Time: 12:30 pm - 2 pm (Lunch included)
Venue: HKUST Business School Central
15/F, Hong Kong Club Building
3A Charter Road, Central, Hong Kong.
Remarks: Limited seats and first-come-first served. Priority is given to new comers. Registration starts one month before the talk.
Enquires: 2358 5019 / science.for.lunch@ust.hk


Details
Cancer is life-threatening. We know that cancer cells proliferate by accumulating many mutations in multiple cellular pathways. They invade and metastasize by defying normal constraints. But cancer cells have their inherent weakness. They gave up many of the cellular controls and safeguards for the sake of proliferation. Through intensive research, we have identified several genes essential to the proliferation of cancer cells. By interfering with these gene targets in both cell culture and animal models, we have been able to identify anticancer compounds capable of causing massive cancer cell death without harming normal cells. We are conducting further pre-clinical studies on these promising novel anticancer agents. We may be on the verge of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in the prolonged war against cancer, a curse to human life and health.

Speaker Profile
Prof Liang Chun
Division of Life Science

Prof Liang Chun has an M.Sc in Chemistry from Miami University and a PhD in Biology from Brown University. For five years he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Currently an Associate Professor in HKUST’s Division of Life Science, Prof Liang has been conducting cutting-edge research on the mechanisms and regulation of DNA replication in budding yeast and human cells and on novel targeted anticancer agents as well as cancer molecular detection methods. His research findings have been published in various leading and quality scientific journals, including Cell, Genes and Development, PNAS, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Cell Science etc. He has been serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Technology and Research, Associate Editor of BMC Molecular Biology, Editor of Journal of Biochemistry & molecular Biology among others.
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