February 9^th at 12:00
on-site event
Presidentti auditorium, BioCity
Spring 2023 program

Prof. Rene Bernards, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands
Unconventional approaches to cancer therapy
Host: Klaus Elenius (klaele@utu.fi)

Coffee and sandwich served at 11:45

Research group of Prof. Bernards uses genome-wide functional genetic approaches to identify powerful drug combinations, new drug targets and mechanisms of resistance to cancer drugs. They focus on induction of senescence as a new therapeutic modality for cancer therapy. In addition, the group studies how combinations of drugs that act in the MAP kinase pathway can help improve responses in patients with perturbations of this pathway. Prof. Bernard’s group aims to bring their discoveries to the clinic in close collaboration with the clinicians of their affiliated hospital.

Selected publications

Jin H, Wang L, Bernards R. 2022. Rational combinations of targeted cancer therapies: background, advances and challenges. Nat Rev Drug Discov, in press

Nowak-Sliwinska P, van Beijnum JR, Griffioen CJ, Huinen ZR, Sopesens NG, Schulz R, Jenkins SV, Dings RPM, Groenendijk FH, Huijbers EJM, Thijssen VLJL, Jonasch E, Vyth-Dreese FA, Jordanova ES, Bex A, Bernards R, de Gruijl TD, Griffioen AW. 2022. Proinflammatory activity of VEGF-targeted treatment through reversal of tumor endothelial cell anergy. Angiogenesis, in press

Wang L, Jin H, Jochems F, Wang S, Lieftink C, Martinez IM, De Conti G, Edwards F, de Oliveira RL, Schepers A, Zhou Y, Zheng J, Wu W, Zheng X, Yuan S, Ling J, Jastrzebski K, Santos Dias MD, Song JY, Celie PNH, Yagita H, Yao M, Zhou W, Beijersbergen RL, Qin W, Bernards R. 2022. cFLIP suppression and DR5 activation sensitize senescent cancer cells to senolysis. Nat Cancer. 3: 1284-1299

Wang L, Lankhorst L, Bernards R. 2022. Exploiting senescence for the treatment of cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 22: 340-355

General information

• You can download all spring 2023 FoS-seminars in your calendar from here: https://seafile.utu.fi/d/4a0b831f23ef420786b0/
• Registration is not needed for the on-site seminars
• Participation list is circulated in the audience
• If you are a student and later wish to get a certificate of attendance from the Frontier of Science seminars, please print out this seminar diary and after the seminar ask the BioCity coordinator to sign it
• Please note that any audio or video recording of the seminars is strictly forbidden.