More than 60 academic, government and pharmaceutical scientists shared insights and exchanged information on the latest innovations in human tissue models and cancer research recently as part of Asterand's inaugural Human Tissue Research Conference (HTRC 2010). The conference, entitled, "Understanding Cancer Through Human Tissue-based Models," was held in Washington D.C., on April 14-15, directly preceding the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Researchers.

A very talented and distinguished panel of experts gathered for the conference, representing many diverse perspectives regarding a number of topics including:

• The role of human tissue-based models in advancing personalized medicine
• The influence of legal and ethical consent issues in the procurement and use of human tissue for research and commercialization
• The application of phenotypic and systems biology approaches in cancer research
• Methods for assessing biospecimen quality
• Human tissue-based models for biomarker discovery and validation
• Advances in techniques for improving molecular results from fixed biospecimens
• The utilization of gene expression models in drug discovery research

The conference speakers included:

• Carolyn C. Compton, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research, NCI
• Eugene Butcher, M.D., Professor, Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Christopher Womack, Principal Clinical Histopathologist Oncology, Early Drug Development, AstraZeneca
• Bob Coleman, Ph.D., Science Advisor, Safer Medicines Trust
• Michael Pisano, Ph.D., CEO NextGEN Sciences
• Robert Hewitt, Ph.D., Director of Biobank Consultancy
• John C. Bloom, V.M.D., Ph.D., President, Bloom Consulting Services, LLC
• Han Chang, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, Applied Genomics, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
• Alison O’Mahony, Ph.D., Director, Inflammation Biology, BioSeek LLC
• Daniel Groelz, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Qiagen
• John Smutko, National Technical Support Manager, NuGEN Technologies

For access to video or ppt. slides of the presentations please contact: advantage@asterand.com.