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Keynote Speakers

Lydia Finley photo - keynote speaker for research retreatLydia Finley, PhD

Assistant Member
Cell Biology Program
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Metabolic Coordination of Cell Fate Decisions

Lydia Finley is an Assistant Member in the Cell Biology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Finley received her BS summa cum laude from Yale University and completed her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Marcia Haigis at Harvard Medical School. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Thompson at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Finley identified metabolites that contribute to the regulation of embryonic stem cell self-renewal. Since opening her own laboratory, she has investigated the mechanisms that link metabolic pathways to cell fate decisions. Using both stem cells and cancer cells, her laboratory has discovered genetic and environmental factors that drive metabolic regulation of chromatin modifications and gene expression programs that control cell fate. Dr. Finley is a Searle Scholar and the recipient of the Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research.


 

Anthony Oro photo - keynote speaker for research retreatAnthony Oro, MD, PhD

Eugene and Gloria Bauer Professor of Dermatology
Co-Director, Maternal and Child Health Research Institute
Associate Director, Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine
Stanford University

The Nuclear Option: New Mechanisms of Tumor Evolution and Drug Resistance

Anthony Oro, M.D., Ph.D., is a practicing physician and Co-Director of the Child Health Research Institute, Associate Director of the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine and the Eugene and Gloria Bauer Professor of Dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Oro trained at the Salk Institute with Dr. Ron Evans on the structure and function of novel orphan nuclear receptors during embryonic development, and completed postdoctoral work with Dr. Matthew Scott.  Dr. Oro established the first link between the hedgehog pathway and continues investigating hair follicle development, and the evolution of human cancer resistance in response to therapy.  His interest in hair and skin regeneration have led him to pursue the mechanisms of chromatin dynamics during tissue differentiation, and to create scalable manufacturing protocols to produce autologous, genetically-corrected tissue stem cells for skin diseases like Epidermolysis bullosa.