First International Rb Meeting to be held in Toronto in November
Members of the scientific community are invited to celebrate two decades of accomplishment and discuss and debate currently burning issues at the first International RB Tumour Suppressor meeting, to be held in Toronto from November 19 to 21, 2009.
The retinoblastoma tumour suppressor (RB1) gene was first cloned 20 years ago. It was discovered due to its role in the childhood eye cancer, retinoblastoma, but is now understood to be part of a pathway that regulates cell division and is defective in most, if not all human cancers.
Scientists in Ontario have made significant contributions to research on the retinoblastoma tumour suppressor and its broader application to cancer research. In the years since RB1 was cloned, scientists here and in other jurisdictions have shown links between RB protein and a range of diverse biological processes including apoptosis, autophagy, senescence, genome stability, immunity, telomere function, stem cell biology, and the development of many cell types, including placental trophoblasts, neurons, muscle, epithelia, erythrocytes and many others.
Many of the scientists who contributed to these discoveries are scheduled to present at the November meeting. Session chairs include Rod Bremner, Head, Genetics and Development Division, Toronto Western Research Institute; Brenda Gallie, a world-leading retinoblastoma surgeon and scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network who has developed genetic tests for the disease; Bob Phillips, a senior scientist who led groundbreaking research on retinoblastoma as a researcher at the Ontario Cancer Institute and The Hospital for Sick Children; and Eldad Zacksenhaus, Senior Scientist, Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Toronto General Research Institute.
This year’s meeting is organized by Bremner and Zacksenhaus. A full speaker’s list and registration are available at: http://www.rbmeeting.ca/
