Cornell Alumni Assoc of Orange County

BUSINESS LUNCH AT THE CENTER CLUB:

Tuesday February 16, 2010, 11:30am – 1:30pm

Our 2010 Biotechnology Luncheon:

Why do naked mole rats live more than 25 years, more than five times than other rodents, and never develop cancer?

Why are Tasmanian Devils being threatened with extinction due to Cancer?

Why do “Methuselah mice” live so long?  

Genomics 2010:

Advances in HUMAN AGING, CANCER, AND PERSONALIZED MEDICINE,

with Dr. Robert Chilcote, Cornell ‘63,

UCI Researcher, former

Director of Pediatric Oncology, City of Hope

11:30 AM Luncheon will begin promptly

12:00 PM Presentation/Q&A

  1:30 PM Luncheon will end promptly

Cost: $40 members,

           $45 non-members,

 includes valet parking at Center Club.

Location: The Center Club, 650 Town Center Drive – Garden Level,

Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Tel. (714) 662-3414.

Parking Information: Valet Parking at Center Club is included.

Registration:  http://oc.alumni.cornell.edu/events.htm#LUNCH

Event Contact: Xavier Kohan, ’67, CAAOC Business Lunches and Breakfasts, xmk2@cornell.edu, 949-548-0430.

Bio: Dr. Robert Chilcote grew up in Euclid, Ohio and attended Cornell University on a swimming scholarship, graduating in 1963 with an A.B. in chemistry.  He then moved upstate to the University of Rochester for medical school and residency.  While there, he held a Whipple scholarship, and completed post-graduate work as Chief Resident in Pediatrics.  After a fellowship in pediatric oncology/hematology in Indianapolis, Dr. Chilcote founded research-based clinics in Chicago for children with blood diseases such as sickle cell disease and hemophilia, and formed a team that developed new approaches to the care of children with cancer. 

As a member of a national, multi-center group, Dr. Chilcote and other physicians developed chemotherapy protocols for childhood lymphomas, raising the cure rate from less than 20% to over 50%.  Most of these children are now adults and many have children of their own.  Dr. Chilcote also collaborated with a pioneering geneticist, Dr. Janet Rowley who recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.  Together they identified a specific chromosomal region on human chromosome 9 (9p21.3) associated with childhood leukemia; since their 1985 publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, more than 10,000 publications by other investigators have expanded the scope of their finding to show that this same region is involved in many common cancers including adult leukemia and lymphoma, melanoma, breast cancer, brain tumors, and pancreatic cancer. 

Dr. Chilcote has served on the faculties of Indiana University, the University of Chicago, the University of Southern California, and UC Irvine, and was Director of Pediatric Oncology at the City of Hope.  He has presented at national and international meetings, summarized research for Encyclopedia Britannica, authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and has and been an advisor to the FDA, NIH, NCI, American Cancer Society, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  He also has an MBA and has served as a consultant to the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. 

After practicing general pediatrics in underserved areas, Dr. Chilcote recently returned to UCI to investigate the recently published and surprising new links between “cellular aging” and 9p21.3.  In addition to cancer, investigators now hypothesize that variations in these same genes predispose not only to cancer, but also to obesity, type II diabetes, and common degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, stroke, and myocardial infarction.

Abstract: Each of us has a unique DNA sequence 3 billion base pairs long, a series of linear codes that determine not only what we are, but also our predisposition to disease.  If the DNA strands from all of our body cells were extracted and laid end to end, they would stretch beyond the moon.  It is a wonder that this DNA, much of it requiring exact replication on a regular basis to maintain life, is not more prone to errors. 

In 2003, the Human Genome Project posted a draft DNA sequence of a single human genome on the web, one of the greatest technological triumphs in the history of science.  This project required more than ten years of coordinated effort by hundreds of senior scientists in dozens of labs around the world and unprecedented computer resources—at a cost over $2B.  Understandably, the application of such technology to everyday medicine seemed fanciful.  However, over the next few years this database expanded to include several additional human samples and many other species.  Using a home computer, one was soon able to browse and compare the sequences of hundreds of organisms large and small, from bacteria to elephants.  One could even click through to view the intimate base-by-base DNA sequences from the two super-star scientists who led this project, Craig Venter and James Watson! 

These advances have not escaped the attention of biotechnology ventures in their quest for drugs to cure cancer and slow aging.  Promising genomic studies are now underway ranging from long-lived mice (“Methuselah mice”) to Tasmanian Devils (threatened by an epidemic of cancer).  Similar approaches are uncovering the genetic secrets of naked mole rats that live more than 25 years, more than five times longer than many of their equally industrious and better-dressed rodent cousins.  Yet, despite their longevity, naked mole rats have never been known to develop cancer. 

In the past year, scientists have not only sequenced the entire genome of cancer tissue obtained from a biopsy sample, but also the patient’s underlying genome derived from normal tissue.  This data provides an “unbiased” comparison between that patient’s cancer and that patient’s own normal cells.  Such “personalized” approaches will allow oncologists to choose those agents that exploit key growth and metabolic vulnerabilities present in that patient’s cancer cells relative to that patient’s normal cells, minimizing toxicity and maximizing chances for cure.

Projects are now well underway to sequence 50,000 different species and 10,000 humans.  It is not fanciful to suppose that one will soon leave a sample at the lab and return a few days to pick up a USB flash drive containing one’s entire genomic sequence (500 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica) at a cost in the range of a routine CAT scan—and considerably less than a weekend with Dr. Weil at Canyon Ranch. 

What will you do with this information?  More importantly, will your doctor be prepared to use this information to develop truly “personalized medicine”.  Dr. Chilcote has long studied genes on human chromosome 9, one of the genomic regions now suspected to have links to not only cancer, but also to degenerative diseases, and aging.  In a short presentation followed by discussion, he will briefly trace the history of these technologies, several of which have their roots at Cornell, and give his perspective on new developments.