Speaker: Alfred Sze-Lok Cheng, Associate Professor
Deputy Chief of Cancer Biology and Experimental Therapeutics Theme
Faculty of Medicine , The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Time: July 10, 2019, 14:30
Location: Zhongting Conference Room, College of Life Sciences
Speaker’s Profile: Understanding of cancer epigenome provides new opportunities to rewire transcriptional programs that drive hallmark tumor traits. Transcriptional enhancers are distal regulatory elements that drive lineage-specific gene expressions. Genetic and epigenetic alterations of these non-coding sequences have emerged as common molecular traits of various human cancers. Recent high-dimensional omics studies in various cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)have emphasized on much importance for the strong immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that counteracts the activation and infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes into the tumor. In this talk, Dr. Cheng hence intend to describe their investigative scope from HCC cell epigenetics to enhancer regulation of tumor immune evasion. Based on their discoveries, they have developed mechanism-based combination immunotherapies that are supported by pharmacological proof-of-concept using preclinical models.
